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SCRIBNER. ARMSTRONG, &. CO, NEW YORK 



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ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF TRAVEL, 
EXPLORATION, AND ADVENTURE. 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 



COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 






NEW YORK: 
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, AND CO. 

SUCCESSORS TO 

CHARLES SCRIBNER AND CO. 
1872. 



C 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

ScRiBNEK, Armstrong, and Company, 
m the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at WashLagton 



KrVERSIPK, CAMBRIDGE; 

FKINTED AND BOUND BY 

H O. HOUGHTON & COMPANY. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

CHAPTER I. 

Sketch of Arabia ; its Geographical Position and Ancient His- 
tory 1 

CHAPTER II. 
Early Explorers of Arabia 8 

CHAPTER III. 
Niebuhr's Travels in Yemen 15 

CHAPTER IV. 
Bnrckhardt's Journey to Mecca and Medina 30 

CHAPTER V. 
Wellsted's Explorations in Oman 42 

CHAPTER VI. 
Wellsted's Discovery of an Ancient City in Hadramaut 58 

CHAPTER Vn. 
Burton's Pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca 65 



iv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER Vni. 

Palgrave's Travels in Central Arabia : from Palestine to the 
Djowf 86 

CHAPTEE IX. 
Palgrave's Travels — Residence in the Djowf 110 

CHAPTER X. 
Palgrave's Travels — Crossing the Nefood 132 

CHAPTER XI. 
Palgrave's Travels — ^Life in Ha'yel 148 

CHAPTER Xn. 
Palgrave's Travels — Journey to Bereydah 188 

CHAPTER Xin. 
Palgmve's Travels — Journey to Ri'ad, the Capital of Nedjed 217 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Palgrave's Travels — Adventures in Ri'ad 236 

CHAPTER XV. 
Palgrave's Travels — His Escape to the Eastern Coast 263 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Palgrave's Travels — Eastern Arabia 285 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Shipwreck on the Coast of Oman — Conclusion 304 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Night March in the Deseet Frontispiece, 

The Coffee Hills of Yemen . . . . * . .20 

View of El-Medina 40 

A Valley in Oman .54 

The Ruins of Nakab El-Hadjar 62 

View of Medina from the West 72 

Camp at Mount Arafat 80 

Costume of Pilgrims to Mecca 84 

William Gifford Palgrave ...... 87- 

An Arab Chief 108 

Captain Burton as a Pilgrim 134 

The Village op El Suwatrkiyah 196 

An Arab Encampment 202 

Death on the Desert 226 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 



CHAPTEK 1. 

SKETCH OF ARABIA: ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AND 
ANCIENT HISTORY. 

THE Peninsula of Arabia, forming the extreme 
soutliwestern corner of Asia, is partly de- 
tached, both in a geographical and historical sense, 
from the remainder of the continent. Although 
parts of it are mentioned in the oldest historical re- 
cords, and its shores were probably familiar to the 
earliest navigators, the greater portion of its terri- 
tory has always remained almost inaccessible and 
unknown. 

The desert, lying between Syria and the Euphra- 
tes, is sometimes included by geographers as be- 
longing to Arabia, but a line drawn from the Dead 
Sea to the mouth of the Euphrates (almost coin- 
ciding with the parallel of 30° N.) would more 
nearly represent the northern boundary of the pen- 
insula. As the most southern point of the Arabian 



2 TRAVELS IN ABABIA, 

coast reaches the latitude of 12° 40', the greater 
part of the entire territory, of more than one million 
square miles, lies within the tropics. In shape it is 
an irregular rhomboid, the longest diameter, from 
Suez to the Cape El-Had, in Oman, being 1,660, and 
from the Euphrates to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, 
1,400 milea 

The entire coast region of Arabia, on the Eed 
Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulfs of Oman and 
Persia, is, for the most part, a belt of fertile country, 
inhabited by a settled, semi-civilized population. 
Back of this belt, which varies in width from a few 
miles to upwards of a hundred, commences a desert 
table-land, occasionally intersected by mountain 
chains, and containing, in the interior, many fertile 
valleys of considerable extent, w^hich are inhabited. 
Very little has been known of this great interior re- 
gion until the present century. 

The ancient geographers divided Arabia into 
three parts, — Arabia Fetrcea, or the Kocky, com- 
prising the northwestern portion, including the Si- 
naitic peninsula, between the GuKs of Suez and 
Akaba ; Arabia Deserta^ the great central desert ; 
and Arabia Felix, the Happy, by which they appear 
to have designated the southwestern part, now 
known as Yemen. The modern Arabic geographj^, 
which has been partly adopted on our maps, is 
based, to some extent, on the political divisions ol 
the country. The coast region along the Red Sea, 
down to a point nearly half way between Djidda and 
the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and including the 
holy cities of Medina and Mecca, is called the Hed- 



QEOGBAPEY AND HISTORY. 



3 



jaz. Yemen, the capital of which is Sana, and the 
chief sea-ports Mocha, Hodeida, and Loheia, em- 
braces all the southwestern portion of the peninsula. 
The southern coast, although divided into various 
little chiefdoms, is known under the general name of 
Hadramaut. The kingdom of Oman has extended 
itself along the eastern shore, nearly to the head of 
the Persian Gulf. The northern oases, the seat of 
the powerful sect of the Wahabees, are called Ned- 
jed ; and the unknown southern interior, which is 
beheved to be almost wholly desert, inhabited only 
by a few wandering Bedouins, is known as the 
Dahna or Akhaf. 

Arabia has been inhabited by the same race since 
the earliest times, and has changed less, in the 
course of thousands of years, than any other country 
of the globe, not excepting China. According to 
Bibhcal genealogy, the natives are descended from 
Ham, through Cush ; but the Bedouins have always 
claimed that they are the posterity of Ishmael. 
Some portions of the country, such as Edom, or 
Idumsea, Teman and Sheba, (the modern Yemen,) 
are mentioned in the Old Testament ; but neither 
the Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, nor Egyptian 
monarchies succeeded in gaining possession of the 
peninsula. Alexander the Great made preparations 
for a journey of conquest, which was prevented by 
his death, and Trojan was the only Roman emperor 
who penetrated into the interior. 

The ' inhabitants were idolaters, whose religion 
had probably some resemblance to that of the Phoe- 
nicians. After the destruction of Jerusalem, both 



4 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

Jews and Christians found their way thither, and 
made proselytes. There were Jews in Medina, 
Mecca, and Yemen ; and even the last Himyaritic 
king of the latter country became a convert to Mo- 
saic faith. Thus the strength of the ancient re- 
ligion was already weakened when Mohammed was 
born (A. D. 570) ; and there are strong evidences 
for the conjecture that the demoralization of both 
Jews and Christians, resulting from their long 
enmity, was the chief cause which prevented Mo- 
hammed from adopting the belief of the latter. At 
the time of his birth, the civilization of the domi- 
nant Arab tribes was little inferior to that of Europe 
or the Eastern Empire. There was already an 
Arabic literature ; and the arts and sciences of the 
ancient world had found their way even to the oases 
of Nedjed. 

The union of the best and strongest elements in 
the race, which followed the establishment of the 
new religion, gave to men of Arabian blood a part 
to play in the history of the world. For six hundred 
years after Mohammed's death Islam and Christen- 
dom were nearly equal powers, and it is difficult, 
even now, to decide which contributed the more to 
the arts from which modern civilization has sprung. 
Arabia flourished, as never before, under the Ca- 
liphs ; yet it does not appear that the life of the in- 
habitants was materially changed, or that any 
growth, acquired during the new importance of the 
country, became permanent. Its commerce was re- 
stricted to the products of its narrow belt of feitile 
shore ; an arid desert separated it from Bagdad and 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY. 5 

Syria ; none of the lines of traffic between Europe 
and the East Indies traversed its territory, and thus 
it remained comparatively unknown to the Christian 
world. 

After the downfall of the Caliphate the tribes re- 
lapsed into their former condition of independent 
chiefdoms, and the old hostilities, which had been 
partially suppressed for some centuries, again re- 
vived. In the sixteenth century the Turks obtained 
possession of Nedjez and Yemen ; the Portuguese 
held Muscat for a hundred and fifty years, and the 
Persians made some temporary conquests, but the 
vast interior region easily maintained its independ- 
ence. The deserts, which everywhere intervene be- 
tween its large and fertile valleys and the seacoast, 
are the home of wandering Bedouin tribes, whose 
only occupation is plunder, — whose hand is against 
every man's, and every man's hand against them. 
Thus they serve as a body-guard even to their own 
enemies. 

The long repose and seclusion of Central Arabia 
was first broken during the present century. It may 
be well to state, very briefly, the circumstances 
which led to it, since they will explain the great 
difficulty and danger which all modern explorers 
must encounter. Early in the last century, an Ara- 
bian named Abd el-Wahab, scandalized at what he 
believed to be the corruption of the Moslem faith, 
began preaching a Reformation. He advocated the 
slaughter or forcible conversion of heretics, the 
most rigid forms of fasting and prayer, the disuse of 
tobacco, and various other changes in the Oriental 



6 TRAVELS IN AE ABU. 

ha-bits of life. Having succeeded in converting the 
chief of Nedjed, Mohammed Ibu-Savod, he took up 
his residence in Derreyeh, the capital, which thence- 
forth became the rendezvous for all his followers, 
who were named Wahabees. They increased to such 
an extent that their authority became supreme 
throughout Central Arabia, and the successor of 
Ibu-Savod was able to call an army of 100,000 men 
into the field, and defy the Ottoman power. 

In the year 1803 the Wahabees took and plun- 
dered Mecca, and slew great numbers of the pil- 
grims who had gathered there. A second expedi- 
tion against Medina failed, but the annual caravan 
of pilgrims was robbed and dispersed. Finally, in 
1809, the Sultan transferred to Mohammed Ali, of 
Egypt, the duty of suppressing this menacing re- 
ligious and political rebellion. The first campaign 
in Arabia was a failure ; the second, under Ibrahim 
Pasha, was successful. He overcame the Wahabees 
in 1818, captured Derreyeh, and razed it to the 
ground. In 1828 they began a second war against 
Turkey, but were again defeated. Since then they 
have refrained from any further aggressive move- 
ment, but their hostility and bigotry are as active as 
ever. The Wahabee doctrine flatters the clannish 
and exclusive spirit of the race, and will probably 
prevent, for a long time, any easy communication 
between Arabia and the rest of the world. 

The greater part of our present knowledge of 
Arabia has been obtained since the opening of this 
century. The chief seaports and the route from 
Suez to Mt. Sinai were known during the Middle 



GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY. 7 

Ages, but all else was little better than a blank. 
Within the last fifty or sixty years the mountains of 
Edom have been explored, the rock-hewn city of 
Petra discovered, the holy cities of Medina and 
Mecca visited by intelligent Europeans ; Yemen, 
Hadramaut, and Oman partly traversed ; and, last 
of all, we have a very clear and satisfactory account 
of Nedjed and the other central regions of Arabia, 
by the intrepid English traveller, Mr. Palgrave. 

Thus, only the southern interior of the peninsula 
remains to be visited. The name given to it by the 
Arabs, Boba el-Khaly, — "the abode of emptiness," 
— no doubt describes its character. It is an im- 
mense, undulating, sandy waste, dotted with scarce 
and small oases, which give water and shelter to the 
Bedouins, but without any large tract of habitable 
land, and consequently without cities, or other than 
the rudest forms of political organization. 



CHAPTEK 11. 

EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABLi. 

WHEN the habit of travel began to revive in 
the Middle Ages, its character was either 
religious or commercial, either in the form of pil- 
grimages to Rome, Palestine, (whenever possible,) 
and the shrines of popular saints, or of journeys to 
the Levant, Persia and the Indies, with the object 
of acquiring wealth by traffic, the profits of which 
increased in the same proportion as its hazards. 
From the time of Trajan's expedition to Arabia, (in 
A. D. 117,) down to the sixteenth century, we have 
no report of the history or condition of the coun- 
try except such as can be drawn from the earlier 
Jewish and Christian traditions and the later Mo- 
hammedan records. 

The first account of a visit to Arabia which ap- 
pears to be worthy of credence, is that given by 
Ludovico Bartema, of Rome. After visiting Egypt, 
he joined the caravan of pilgrims at Damascus, in 
1503, in the company of a Mameluke captain, him- 
self disguised as a Mameluke renegade. After 
several attacks from the Bedouins of the desert, 



EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA. 9 

the caravan reached Medina, whicli he describes as 
containing three hundred houses. Bartema gives 
a very correct description of the tomb of the Pro- 
phet, and scoffs at the then prevalent behef that the 
latter's coffin is suspended in the air, between four 
lodestones. 

He thus describes an adventure which befell his 
company the same evening after their visit to the 
mosque. "At almost three of the night, ten or 
twelve of the elders of the sect of Mohammed en- 
tered into our caravan, which remained not past a 
stone's cast from the gate of the city. These ran 
hither and tliither, crying like madmen with these 
words : ' Mohammed, the messenger and apostle of 
God, shall rise again! O Prophet, O God, Mo- 
hammed shall rise again! Have mercy on us, 
God !' Our captain and we, all raised with this cry, 
took weapon with all expedition, suspecting that 
the Arabs were come to rob our caravan. We 
asked what was the cause of that exclamation, and 
what they cried ? For they cried as do the Christ- 
ians when suddenly any marvellous thing chanceth. 
The elders answered : * Saw you not the Hghtning 
which shone out of the sepulchre of the Prophet 
Mohammed?' Our captain answered that he saw 
nothing, and we also being demanded, answered in 
like manner. Then said one of the old men : ' Are 
you slaves?' This to say bought men, meaning 
thereby, Mamelukes. Then said our captain : * We 
are indeed Mamelukes. Then again the old man 
said : ' You, my lords, cannot see heavenly things, 
as being neophit% that is, newly come to the faith. 



f 



10 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

and not yet confirmed in our religion.' It is there- 
fore to be understood that none other shining came 
out of the sepulchre than a certain flame, which the 
priests caused to come out of the open place of the 
tower, whereby they would have deceived us." 

Leaving Medina, the caravan travelled for three 
days over a " broad plain,'' all covered with white 
sand, in manner as small as flour. Then they 
passed a mountain, where they heard "a certain 
horrible noise and cry," and after journeying for 
ten days longer, during which time they twice 
fought with " fifty thousand Arabians," they reached 
Mecca, of which Bartema says : " The city is very 
fair, and well inhabited, and containeth in round 
form six thousand houses as well builded as ours, 
and some that cost three or four thousand pieces of 
gold : it hath no walls." 

Bartema describes the ceremonies performed by 
the pilgrims, with tolerable correctness. His fel- 
lowship with the Mamelukes seems to have been a 
complete protection up to the time when the cara- 
van was ready to set out on its return to Damas- 
cus, and the members of the troop w^ere ordered to 
accompany it, on pain of death. Then he man- 
aged to escape by persuading a Mohammedan that 
he understood the art of casting cannon, and 
wished to reach India, in order to assist the na- 
tive monarchs in defending themselves against the 
Portuguese. Reaching Djidda in safety, Bartema 
sailed for Persia, visiting Yemen on the way ; 
made his way to India, and after various adven- 



EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA. 11 

tures, returned to Europe by way of the Cape of 
Good Hope. 

The second European who made his way to the 
holy cities was Joseph Pitts, an EngKshman, who 
was captured by an Algerine pirate, as a sailor-boy 
of sixteen, and forced by his master to become a 
Mussulman. After some years, when he had ac- 
quired the Arabic and Turkish languages, he ac- 
companied his master for a pilgrimage to Mecca, 
by way of Cairo, Suez and the Red Sea. Here he 
received his freedom ; but continued with the pil- 
grims to Medina, and returned to Egypt by land, 
through Arabia Petrsea. After fifteen years of ex- 
ile, he succeeded in escaping to Italy, and thence 
made his way back to England. 

Pitts gives a minute and generally correct ac- 
count of the ceremonies at Mecca. He was not, of 
course, learned in Moslem theology, and his narra- 
tive, like that of all former visitors to Mecca, has 
been superseded by the more intelligent description 
of Burckhardt ; yet it coincides with the latter in 
all essential particulars. His description of the 
city and surrounding scenery is worth quoting, from 
the quaint simplicity of its style. 

" First, as to Mecca. It is a town situated in a 
barren place, (about one day's journey from the 
Eed Sea,) in a valley, or rather in the midst of 
many little hills. It is a place of no force, wanting 
both walls and gates. Its buildings are, as I said 
before, very ordinary, insomuch that it would be a 
place of no tolerable entertainment, were it not for 
the anniversary resort of so many thousand Hagges, 



12 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

or pilgrims, on whose coming tlie whole dependence 
of the town (in a manner) is ; for many shops are 
scarcely open all the year besides. 

" The people here, I observed, are a poor sort of 
people, very thin, lean and swarthy. The town is 
surrounded for several miles with many thousands 
of little hills, which are very near one to the other. 
I have been on the top of some of them near Mec- 
ca, where I could see some miles about, yet was 
not able to see the farthest of the hills. They are 
all stony-rock and blackish, and pretty near of a 
bigness, appearing at a distance like cocks of hay, 
but all pointing towards Mecca. Some of them 
are half a mile in circumference, but all near of 
one height. The people here have an odd and 
foolish sort of tradition concerning them, viz., 
That when Abraham went about building the 
Beat-Allah, God by his wonderful providence did 
so order it, that every mountain in the world 
should contribute something to the building thereof ; 
and accordingly every one did send its proportion, 
though there is a mountain near Algier which is 
called Oorradog, i.e., Black Mountain, and the rea- 
son of its blackness, they say, is because it did not 
send any part of itself towards building the temple 
at Mecca. Between these hills is good and plain 
travelling, though they stand one to another. 

" There is upon the top of one of them a cave, 
which they term Hira, i.e., Blessing, into which, 
they say, Mahomet did usually retire for his solita- 
ry devotions, meditations and fastings ; and here 
they believe he had a great part of the Alcoran 



EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA. 13 

brouglit him by the Angel Gabriel. I have been 
in this cave, and observed that it is not at all beau- 
tified, at which I admired. 

" About half a mile out of Mecca is a very steep 
hill, and there are stairs made to go to the top of it, 
where is a cupola, under which is a cloven rock; 
into this, they say, Mahomet when very young, viz., 
about four years of age, was carried by the Angel 
Gabriel, who opened his breast and took out his 
heart, from which he picked some black blood- 
specks, which was his original corruption ; then put 
it into its place again, and afterwards closed up 
the part ; and that during this operation Mahomet 
felt no pain." 

The next account of the same pilgrimage is given 
by Giovanni Tinati, an Italian, who deserted from 
the French service on the coast of Dalmatia, and 
became an Albanian soldier. Making his way to 
Egypt, after various adventures, he became at last 
a corporal in Mohammed All's body-guard, and 
shared in several campaigns against the Waha- 
bees. He did not, however, penetrate very far 
inland from the coast, and his visit to Mecca was 
the result of his desertion from the Egyptian army 
after a defeat. His narrative contains nothing 
which has not been more fully and satisfactorily 
stated by later travellers. 

By this time, however, the era of careful scienti- 
fic exploration had already commenced, and the de- 
scriptions which have since then been furnished to 
us are positive contributions to our knowledge of 
Arabia. With the exception of the journey of Cars- 



14 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

ten Niebuhr, which embraces only the Sinaitic Pe- 
ninsula and Yemen, the important explorations — all 
of which are equally difficult and daring — have 
been made since the commencement of this century. 



OHAPTEE III. 



IN 1760 the Danish government decided to send 
an expedition to Arabia and India for the pur- 
pose of geographical exploration. The command 
was given to Carsten Niebuhr, a native of Hannover, 
and a civil engineer. Four other gentlemen — an 
artist, a botanist, a physician, and an astronomer — 
were associated with him in the undertaking ; yet, 
by a singular fatality, all died during the journey, 
and Niebuhr returned alone, after an absence of 
nearly seven years, to publish the first narrative of 
travel based on scientific observation. 

The party sailed from Copenhagen for Smyrna in 
January 1761, visited Constantinople, and then pro- 
ceeded to Egypt, where they remained nearly a year. 
After a journey to Sinai, they finally succeeded in 
engaging passage on board a vessel carrying pil- 
grims from Suez to Djidda, and sailed from the for- 
mer port in October, 1762. They took the precau- 
tion of adopting the Oriental dress, and conformed, 
as far as possible, to the customs of the Mussulman 
passengers ; thus the voyage, although very tedious 



16 TRAVELS m ARABIA. 

and uncomfortable, was not accompanied with any 
other danger than that from the coral reefs along 
the Arabian shore. The vessel touched at Yambo, 
the port of Medina, and finally reached Djidda, 
after a voyage of nineteen days. 

The travellers entered Djidda under strong appre- 
hensions of ill-treatment from the inhabitants, but 
were favorably disappointed. The people, it seemed, 
were already accustomed to the sight of Christian 
merchants in their town, and took no particular 
notice of the strangers, who went freely to the 
coffee-houses and markets, and felt themselves safe 
so long as they did not attempt to pass through the 
gate leading to Mecca. The Turkish Pasha of the 
city received them kindly, and they were allowed to 
hire a house for their temporary residence. 

After waiting six weeks for the chance of a pas- 
sage to Mocha, they learned that an Arabian vessel 
was about to sail for Hodeida, one of the ports of 
Yemen. The craft, when they visited it, proved to 
be more like a hogshead than a ship ; it was only 
seven fathoms long, by three in breadth. It had 
no deck; its planks were extremely thin, and 
seemed to be only nailed together, but not pitched. 
The captain wore nothing but a linen cloth upon 
his loins, and his sailors, nine in number, were 
black slaves from Africa or Malabar. Nevertheless, 
they engaged passage, taking the entire vessel for 
themselves alone ; but when they came to embark, 
it was filled with the merchandise of others. The 
voyage proved to be safe and pleasant, and in six- 
teen days they landed at Loheia, in Yemen. 



NIEBUER'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 17 

The goveriior of this place was a negro, who had 
formerly been a slave. He received the travellers 
with the greatest kindness, persuaded them to leave 
the vessel, and gave them a residence, promising 
camels for the further journey by land. Although 
they were somewhat annoyed by the great curiosity 
of the inhabitants, their residence was so agreeable, 
and offered the naturalists so many facilities for 
making collections, that they remained nearly four 
months. " We had one opportunity," says Niebuhr, 
" of learning their ideas of the benefits to be derived 
from medicine. Mr. Cramer had given a scribe an 
emetic which operated with extreme violence. The 
Arabs, being struck at its wonderful effects, re- 
solved all to take the same excellent remedy, and 
the reputation of our friend's skill thus became very 
high among them. The Emir of the port sent one 
day for him ; and, as he did not go immediately, the 
Emir soon after sent a saddled horse to our gate. 
Mr. Cramer, supposing that this horse was intended 
to bear him to the Emir, was going to mount him, 
when he was told that this was the patient he was 
to cure. We luckily found another physician in our 
party ; our Swedish servant had been with the 
hussars in his native country, and had acquired 
some knowledge of the diseases of horses. He 
offered to cure the Emir's horse, and succeeded. 
The cure rendered him famous, and he was after- 
wards sent for to human patients." 

Having satisfied themselves, by this time, that 
there was no danger in travelling in Yemen, they 
did not wait for the departure of any large caravan, 



18 



TEA VELS IN ABABIA. 



but, on the 20th of February, 1763, set out from 
Loheia, mounted on asses, and made their way 
across the Tehama, or low country, towards the 
large town of Beit el-Takih, which stands near the 
base of the coffee-bearing hills. They wore dresses 
somewhat similar to those of the natives, — a long 
shirt, reaching nearly to the feet, a girdle, and a 
mantle over the shoulders. The country was bar- 
ren, but there were many large villages, and, at 
intervals of every few miles, they found coffee- 
houses, or rather huts, for the refreshment of tra- 
vellers. After having suffered no further incon- 
venience than from the brackish water, which is 
drawn from weUs more than a hundred feet deep, 
they reached Beit el-Fakih in five days. 

Here they were kindly received by one of the 
native merchants, who hired a stone house for them. 
The town is seated upon a well-cultivated plain ; it 
is comparatively modern, but populous, and the tra- 
vellers, now entirely accustomed to the Arabian 
mode of life, felt themselves safe. The Emir took 
no particular notice of them, — a neglect with which 
they were fully satisfied, since it left them free to 
range the country in all directions. Niebuhr, there- 
fore, determined to make the place the temporary 
headquarters of the expedition, and to give some 
time to excursions in that part of Yemen. "I 
hired an ass," says he, " and its owner agreed to 
follow me as my servant on foot. A turban, a great 
coat wanting the sleeves, a shirt, linen drawers, and 
a pair of slippers, were all the dress that I wore. It 
being the fashion of the country to carry arms in 



NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 19 

travelling, I had a sabre and two pistols hung by 
my girdle. A piece of old carpet was my saddle, 
and served me likewise for a seat, a table, and va- 
rious other purposes. To cover me at night, I had 
the linen cloak which the Arabs wrap about their 
shoulders, to shelter them from the sun and rain. 
A bucket of water, an article of indispensable ne- 
cessity to a traveller in these arid regions, hung by 
my saddle." 

After a trip to the seaport of Hodcida, Niebuhr 
visited the old town of Zebid, built on the ruins of 
an older city, which is said to have once been the 
capital of all the low country. Zebid is situated in 
a large and fertile valley, traversed during the rainy 
season by a considerable stream, by which a large 
tract of country is irrigated. There are the remains 
of an aqueduct built by the Turks, but the modern 
town does not cover half the space of the ancient 
capital. Zebid, however, is still distinguished for 
its academy, in which the youth of all that part of 
Yemen study such sciences as are now cultivated 
by the Mussulmans. 

Niebuhr's next trip was to the plantations of the 
famous Mocha coffee, whither the other members 
of the party had already gone, during his visit to 
Zebid. After riding about twenty miles eastward 
from Beit el-Fakih, he reached the foot of the 
mountains. He thus describes the region : " Nei- 
ther asses nor mules can be used here. The hills 
are to be climbed by steep and narrow paths ; yet, 
in comparison with the parched plains of the Teha- 
ma, the scenery seemed to me charming, as it was 



20 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

covered with gardens and plantations of coffee- 
trees. 

" Up to this time I had seen only one small basal- 
tic hill ; but here whole mountains were composed 
chiefly of those columns. Such detached rocks 
formed grand objects in the landscape, especially 
where cascades of water were seen to rush from 
their summits. The cascades, in such instances, 
had the appearance of being supported by rows of 
artificial pillars. These basalts are of great utility 
to the inhabitants ; the columns, which are easily 
separated, serve as steps where the ascent is most 
difficult, and as materials for walls to support the 
plantations of coffee-trees, upon the steep declivities 
of the mountains. 

" The tree which affords the coffee is well known 
in Europe ; so that I need not here describe it par- 
ticularly. The coffee-trees were all in flower at 
Bulgosa, and exhaled an exquisitely agreeable per- 
fume. They are planted upon terraces, in the form 
of an amphitheatre. Most of them ^re only watered 
by the rains that frill, but some, indeed, from large 
reservoirs upon the heights, in which spring-water 
is collected, in order to be sprinkled upon the ter- 
races, where the trees grow so thick together that 
the rays of the sun can hardly enter among their 
branches. We were told that those trees, thus arti- 
ficially watered, yielded ripe fruit twice in the year ; 
but the fruit becomes not fully ripe the second time, 
and the coffee of this crop is always inferior to that 
of the first. 

*' Stones being more common in this part of the 




I 



NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 21 

country than in the Tehama, the houses — as well of 
the villages as those which are scattered solitarily 
over the hills — are built of this material. Althou h 
not to be compared to the houses of Europe for 
commodiousness and elegance, yet they have a good 
appearance ; especially such of them as stand upon 
the heights, with amphitheatres of beautiful gardens 
and trees around them. 

" Even at this village of Bulgosa we were greatly 
above the level of the plain from which we had 
ascended ; yet we had scarcely climbed half the as- 
cent to Kusma, where the Emir of this district 
dwells, upon the loftiest peak of the range of moun- 
tains. Enchanting landscapes there meet the eye 
on all sides. 

*'We passed the night at Bulgosa. Several of 
the men of the village came to see us, and after 
they retired we had a visit from our hostess, with 
some young women accompanying her, who were all 
very desirous to see the Europeans. They seemed 
less shy than the women in the cities ; their faces 
were unveiled, and they talked freely with us. As 
the air is fresher and cooler upon these hills, the 
women have a finer and fairer complexion than in 
the plain. Our artist drew a portrait of a young 
girl who was going to draw water, and was dressed 
in a shirt of linen, chequered blue and white. The 
top and middle of the shirt, as well as the lower 
part of the drawers, were embroidered with needle- 
work of different colors." 

Having met with no molestation so far, Niebahr 
determined to make a longer excursion into the 



22 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



southern interior of Yemen, among the mountains, 
to the important towns of Udden and Taas. The 
preparations were easily made. The travellers 
hired asses, the owners accompanjdng them on foot 
as guides and servants. As a further disguise they 
assumed Arabic names, and their real character 
was so well concealed that even the guides supposed 
them to be Oriental Christians, — not Europeans. 
Entering the mountains by an unfrequented road, 
they found a barren region at first, but soon reached 
valleys where cojffee was cultivated. The inhabitants, 
on account of the cDoler nights, sleep in linen bags, 
which they draw over the head, and thus keep them- 
selves warm by their own breathing. 

After reaching Udden, which Niebuhr found to be 
a town of only three hundred houses, the hill- country 
became more thickly settled. Beside the roads, 
which had formerly been paved with stones, there 
were frequent tanks of water for the use of travellers, 
and, in exposed places, houses for their shelter in 
case of sto?ms. The next important place was 
Djobla, a place of some importance in the annals of 
Yemen, but with no antiquities, except some ruined 
mosques. A further march of two days brought the 
party to the fortified city of Taas, but they did not 
venture within its walls, not having applied to the 
Emir for permission. They returned to their quar- 
ters at Beit el-Fakih, by way of Haas, another large 
town, at the base of the mountains, having made 
themselves acquainted with a large portion of the 
hill-country of Arabia Felix. 

The journey to Mocha lasted three days, over a 



NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 23 

hot, barren plain, with no inhabitants, except in the 
wadys, or valleys, which are well watered during 
the rainy season. Their arrival at Mocha was fol- 
lowed by a series of annoyances, first from the cus- 
tom-house officials, and then from the Emir, who 
conceived a sudden prejudice against the travellers, 
so that they were in danger of being driven out of 
the city. An English merchant, however, came to 
their assistance, a present of fifty ducats mollified 
the Emir, and at the end of a very disagreeable 
week they received permission to stay in the city. 
From heat and privation they had all become ill, 
and in a short time one of the party died, 

Niebuhr now requested permission to proceed 
to Sana, the capital of Yemen. This the Emir re- 
fused, until he could send word to the Imam ; 
but, after a delay of a month, he allowed the party 
to go as far as Taas, which they reached in four 
days, and where they were well received. The re- 
freshing rains every evening purified the air, and 
all gradually recovered their health, except the 
botanist, who died before reaching Sana. 

Taas stands at the foot of the fertile mountain of 
Sabber, upon which, the Arabs say, grow all varie- 
ties of plants and trees to be found in the world. 
Nevertheless they did not allow the travellers to 
ascend or even approach it. The city is surrounded 
with a wall, between sixteen and thirty feet high, 
and flanked with towers. The patron saint of the 
place is a former king, Ismael Melek, who is buried 
in a mosque bearing his name. No person is 
allowed to visit the tomb since the occurrence of a 



24 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



miraclGj which Niebuhr thus relates : " Two beggars 
had asked charity of the Emir of Taas, but only 
one of them had tasted of his bounty. Upon this 
the other went to the tomb of Ismael Melek to im- 
plore his aid. The saint, who, when alive, had been 
very charitable, stretched his hand out of the tomb 
and gave the beggar a letter containing an order on 
the Emir to pay him a hundred crowns. Upon ex- 
amining this order with the greatest care it was 
found that Ismael Melek had written it with his 
own hand and sealed it with his own seal. The 
governor could not refuse payment ; but to avoid 
all subsequent trouble from such bills of exchange, 
he had a wall built, inclosing the tomb." 

The Emir of Taas so changed in his behavior to- 
wards the travellers, alter a few days, that he 
ordered them to return to Mocha. Finding all 
their arguments and protests in vain, they were 
about to comply, when a messenger arrived from 
Mocha, bringing the permission of the Imam of 
Yemen for them to continue their journey to Sana. 
They set out on the 28th of June, and, after cross- 
ing the mountain ranges of Mharras and Samara, 
by well paved and graded roads, reached, in a week, 
the town of Jerim, near the ruins of the ancient 
Himyaritic city of Taphar, which, however, they 
w ere unable to visit on account of the illness of Mr. 
Forskal, the botanist of the expedition. This gentle- 
man died in a few days ; and they were obliged 
to bury him by night, with the greatest precau- 
tion. 

From Jerim it is a day's journey to Damar, the 



NIEBUHB'8 TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 25 

capital of a province. The city, which is seated in 
the midst of a fertile plain, and is without walls, 
contains five thousand well-built houses. It has a 
famous university, which is usually attended by five 
hundred students. The travellers were here very 
much annoyed by the curiosity of the people, who 
threw stones at their windows in order to force 
them to show themselves. There is a mine of na- 
tive sulphur near the place, and a mountain where 
cornelians are found, which are highly esteemed 
throughout the East. 

Beyond Damar the country is hilly, but every vil- 
lage IS surrounded with gardens, orchards, and vine- 
yards, which are irrigated from large artificial res- 
ervoirs built at the foot of the hills. On reaching 
Sana the travellers were not allowed to enter the 
city, but conducted to an unfurnished house without 
the walls, where they were ordered to wait two days 
in entire seclusion, until they could be received by 
the Imam. During this time they were not allowed 
to be visited by any one. Niebuhr thus describes 
their interview, which took place on the third day : 

" The hall of audience was a spacious square 
chamber, having an arched roof. In the middle 
was a large basin, with some jets d'eau, rising four- 
teen feet in height. Behind the basin, and near the 
throne, were two large benches, each a foot and a 
half high ; upon the throne was a space covered 
with silken stuff, on which, as well as on both sides 
of it, lay large cushions. The JLmam sat between 
the cushions, with his legs crossed in the Eastern 
fashion ; his gown was of a bright green color, and 



26 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

had large sleeves. Upon each side of his breast 
was a rich filleting of gold lace, and on his head he 
wore a great white turban. His sons sat on his 
right hand, and his brothers on the left. Opposite 
to them, on the highest of the two benches, sat the 
Yizier, and our place was on the lower bench. 

" We were first led up to the Imam, and were 
permitted to kiss both the back and the palm of his 
hand, as well as the hem of his robe. It is an ex- 
traordinary favor when the Mohammedan princes 
permit any person to kiss the palm of the hand. 
There was a solemn silence through the whole hall. 
As each of us touched the Imam's hand a herald 
still proclaimed, ' God preserve the Imam !' and all 
who were present repeated these words after him. 
I was thinking at the time how. I should pay my 
compliments in Arabic, and was not a little disturbed 
by this noisy ceremony. 

" We did not think it proper to mention the true 
reason of our expedition through Arabia ; but told 
the Imam that, wishing to travel by the shortest 
ways to the Danish colonies, in the East Indies, we 
had heard so much of the plenty and security which 
prevailed through his dominions, that we had re- 
solved to see them with our own eyes, so that we 
might describe them to our countrymen. The Imam 
told us we were welcome to his dominions, and 
might stay as long as we pleased. After our return 
home he sent to each of us a small purse con- 
taining ninety-nine Icomassis, two and thirty of which 
make a crown. This piece of civility might, per- 
haps, appear no compliment to a traveller's delicacy. 



NIEBVHE'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN. 27 

But, when it is considered that a stranger, unac- 
quainted with the value of the money of the country, 
obhged to pay every day for his provisions, is in 
danger of being imposed upon by the money-chan- 
gers, this care of providing us with small money will 
appear to have been sufficiently obliging." 

" The city of Sana," says Niebuhr, " is situated 
at the foot of Mount Nikkum, on which are still to 
be seen the ruins of a castle, which the Arabs sup- 
pose to have been built by Shem. Near this moun- 
tain stands the citadel; a rivulet rises upon the 
other side, and near it is the Bostan el-Metwokkel, 
a spacious garden, which was laid out by the Imam 
of that name, and has been greatly embellished by 
the reigning Imam. The walls of the city, which 
are built of bricks, exclude this garden, which is in- 
closed within a wall of its own. The city, properly 
so called, is not very extensive ; one may walk 
around it in an hour. There are a number of 
mosques, some of which have been built by Turk- 
ish Pastas. In Sana are only twelve pubUc baths, 
but many noble palaces, three of ' the most splendid 
of which have been built by tlie reigning Imam. 
The materials of these palaces are burnt bricks, 
and sometimes even hewn stones ; but the houses of 
the common people are of bricks, which have been 
dried in the sun. 

" The suburb of Bir el-Arsab is nearly adjoining 
the city on the east side. The houses of this village 
are scattered through the gardens, along the banks 
of a small river. Fruits are very plenteous ; there 
are more than twenty different kinds of grapes, 



\ 



\ 



28 TEA VELS IN ABABIA. 

which, as they do not all ripen at the same time, 
continue to afford a delicious refreshment for several 
months. The Arabs likewise preserve grapes by 
hanging them up in their cellars, and eat them 
almost through the whole y©ar. Two leagues north- 
ward from Sana is a plain named Rodda, which is 
overspread with gardens, and watered by a number 
of rivulets. This place bears a great resemblance 
to the neighborhood of Damascus. But Sana, 
which some ancient authors compare to Damascus, 
stands on a rising ground, with nothing like florid 
vegetation about it. After long rains, indeed, a 
small rivulet runs through the city ; but all the 
ground is dry through the rest bf the year. How- 
ever, by aqueducts from Mount Nikkum, the town 
and castle of Sana are, at all times, supplied with 
abundance of excellent fresh water." 

After a stay of a week the travellers obtained an 
audience of leave, fearing that^^ longer delay might 
subject them to suspicions and embarrassments. 
Two days afterwards the Imam sent each of them 
a complete suit of clothes, with a letter to the Emir 
of Mocha, ordering him to pay them two hundred 
crowns as a farewell present. He also furnished 
them with camels for the journey. Instead of re- 
turning by the same road they determined to de- 
scend from the hill-country to their old headquarters 
at Beit el-Fakih, and thence cross the lowland to 
Mocha. -"^ 

For two days they travelled over high, rocky 
mountains, by' the worst roads they found in Yemen. 
The country was poor and thinly inhabited, and the 



O 

o 



NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IF YEMEN. 29 

declivities only began to be clothed with trees, and 
terraced into coffee plantations as thej approached 
the plains. The poorer regions are not considered 
entirely safe by the Arabs, as the people frequently 
plunder defenceless travellers ; but the party passed 
safely through this region, and reached Beit el-Fa- 
kih after a week's journey from Sana. 

Niebuhr and his companions reached Mocha early 
in August, and, towards the end of that month 
sailed in an English vessel for Bombay, after a stay 
of ten months in Yemen. The artist of the expedi- 
tion, and the Swedish servant, died on the Indian 
Ocean, and the physician in India, a few months 
afterwards, leaving Niebuhr the sole survivor of the 
six persons who left Copenhagen three years before. 
After having sent home the journals and collections 
of the expedition he continued his travels through 
the Persian Gulf, Bagdad, Armenia, and Asia Minor, 
finally reaching Denmark in 1767. The era of in- 
telligent, scientific exploration, which is now rapidly 
opening all parts of the world to our knowledge, 
may be said to have, . been inaugurated by his 
travels. 



CHAPTEB IV. 

BURCKHARDTS JOURNEY TO MECCA AND MEDINA. 

BURCKHAEDT, to whom we are indebted for 
the first careful and complete description of 
the holy cities of Arabia, was a native of Lau- 
sanne, in Switzerland. After having been educated 
in Germany, he went to London with the intention 
of entering the English military service, but was 
persuaded by Sir Joseph Banks to apply to the 
African Association for an appointment to explore 
the Sahara, and the then unknown negro kingdoms 
of Central Africa. His offer was accepted, and 
after some preparation he went to Aleppo, in Sy- 
ria, where he remained for a year or two, engaged 
in studj'ing Arabic and familiarizing himself with 
Oriental habits of life. 

His first journeys in Syria and Palestine, which 
were only meant as preparations for the African 
exploration, led to the most important results. He 
was the first to visit the country of Hauran — the 
Bashan of Scripture — lying southeast of Damas- 
cus. After this he passed through Moab, east of 
the Dead Sea, and under the pretence of making 



» 



BUBGKHARDTS JOURNEY TO MECCA. 31 

a pilgrimage to the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor, 
discovered the rock-hewn palaces and temples of 
Petra, which had been for many centuries lost to 
the world. 

Burckhardt reached Cairo in safety, and after 
vainly waiting some months for an opportunity of 
joining a caravan to Fezzan, determined to employ 
his time in making a visit to Upper Egypt and Nu- 
bia. Travelling alone, with a single guide, he suc- 
ceeded in reaching the frontiers of Dongola, be- 
yond which it was then impossible to proceed. Ho 
therefore returned to Assouan, and joined a small 
caravan, which crossed the Nubian Desert to Ethi- 
opia, by very nearly the same route which Bruce 
hid taken in returning from Abyssinia. He re- 
mained some time at Shendy, the capital of Ethio- 
pia, and then, after a journey of three months 
across the country of Takka, which had never be- 
fore been visited by a European, reached the port 
of Sowakin, on the Bed Sea. Here he embarked 
for Djidda, in Arabia, where he arrived in July, 1814. 

By this time his Moslem character had been so 
completely acquired that he felt himself free from 
suspicion. Accordingly he decided to remain and 
take part in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, 
which was to take place that year, in November. 
His funds, however, were nearly exhausted, and the 
Djidda merchants refused to honor an old letter of 
credit upon Cairo, which he still carried with him. In 
this emergency he wrote to the Armenian physician 
of Mohammed Ali, who was at that time with 
the Pasha at the city of Tayf, (or Tayef,) about 



32 TEA VEL8 IN ARABIA. 

seventy miles southeast of Mecca. Mohammed 
Ali happening to hear of this application, immedi- 
ately sent a messenger with two dromedaries, to 
summon Burckhardt to visit him. It seems most 
probable that the Pasha suspected the traveller of 
being an English spy, and wished to examine him 
personally. The guide had orders to conduct the 
latter to Tayf by a circuitous route, instead of by 
the direct road through Mecca. 

Burckhardt set out without the least hesitation, 
taking care to exhibit no suspicion of the Pasha's 
object, and no desire to see the holy city. But the 
guide himself proposed that they should pass 
through Mecca in order to save travel ; the journey 
was hurried, however, and only a rapid observation 
was possible. Pushmg eastward, they reached, on 
the third night, the Mountain of Kora, which 
divides the territory of Mecca from that of Tayf. 
Burckhardt was astonished at the change in the 
scenery, produced by the greater elevation of the 
interior of Arabia above the sea. His description 
is a striking contrast to that of the scene y about 
Mecca. 

" This," he says, " is the most beautiful spot in 
the Hedjaz, and more picturesque and delightful 
than anything I had seen since my departure from 
Lebanon, in Syria. The top of Djebel Kora is 
flat, but large masses of granite lie scattered over 
it, the surface of which, like that of the granite 
rocks near the second cataract of the Nile, is 
blackened by the sun. Several small rivulets de- 
scend from this peak anl irrigata the plain, which 



BURCKHARDTS JOUENET TO MECCA. 33 

is covered witli verdant fields and large sliady trees 
beside the granite rocks. To those who have only 
known the dreary and scorching sands of the lower 
country of the Hedjaz, this scene is as surprising 
as the keen air which blows here is refreshing. 
Many of the fruit-trees of Europe are found here : 
figs, apricots, peaches, apples, the Egyptian syca- 
more, almonds, pomegranates ; but particularly vines, 
the produce of which is of the best quality. After 
having passed through this delightful district for 
about half an hour, just as the sun was rising, 
w4ien every leaf and blade of grass was covered 
with a balmy dew, and every tree and shrub dif- 
fused a fragrance as delicious to the smell as was 
the landscape to the eye, I halted near the largest 
of the rivulets, which, although not more than two 
paces across, nourishes upon its banks a green alp- 
ine turf, such as the mighty Nile, with all its luxuri- 
ance, can never produce in Egypt." 

Burckhardt had an interview with Mohammed 
Ali on the evening of his arrival in Tayf. His sus- 
picions were confirmed : the Kadi (Judge) of Mec- 
ca and two well-informed teachers of the Moslem 
faith were present, and although the Pasha pro- 
fessed to accept Burckhardt's protestations of his 
Moslem character, it was very evident to the latter 
that he was cunningly tested by the teachers. Ne- 
vertheless, when the interview was over, they pro- 
nounced him to be not only a genuine Moslem, but 
one of unusual learning and piety. The Pasha 
was forced to submit to this decision, but he was 
evidently not entirely convinced, for he gave orders 



34 TBA VELS IN ARABIA. 

that Burckhardt should be the guest of his physi- 
cian, in order that his speech and actions might be 
more closely observed. Burckhardt took a thor- 
oughly Oriental way to release himself from this 
surveillance. He gave the physician so much trou- 
ble that the latt-er was very glad at the end of ten 
days, to procure from the Pasha permission for 
him to return to Mecca, in order to get rid of him. 
Burck:hardt thereupon travelled to the holy city in 
company with the Kadi himself ! 

At the valley of Mohram, nearly a day's journey 
from Mecca, Burckhardt changed his garb for the 
ihram, or costume worn by the pilgrims during 
their devotional services. It consists of two pieces 
of either linen, cotton or woolen cloth : one is 
wrapped around the loins, while the other is 
thrown over the shoulder in such a manner as to 
leave the right arm entirely bare. On reaching 
Mecca, he obeyed the Moslem injunction of first 
visiting the great mosque and performing all the 
requisite ceremonies before transacting any worldly 
business. When this had been accomplished he 
made a trip to Djidda for the purpose of procuring 
supplies, which were necessary for the later pil- 
grimage to Medina, and then established himself 
comfortably in an unfrequented part of Mecca, to 
await the arrival of the caravan of pilgrims from 
Damascus. 

Burckhardt describes the great mosque of Mecca, 
which is called the Beit Allah, or " House of God," 
as " a large quadrangular building, in the centre of 
which stands the Kaaba, an oblong, massive struc- 



BUBCKIIABDT8 JOUBNEY TO MECCA. 35 

ture, eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, 
and from thirty-five to forty feet in height. It is 
constructed of gray Mecca stone, in large blocks ot 
different sizes, joined together in a very rough man- 
ner, and with bad cement. At the northeast corner 
of the Kaaba, near the door^ is the famous Black 
Stone, which forms part of the sharp angle of the 
building at four or five feet above the ground. It 
is an irregular oval of about seven inches in diame- 
ter, with an undulating surface, composed of about 
a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, 
well joined together with a small quantity of ce- 
ment, and perfectly smoothed. It is very difficult to 
determine accurately the quality of this stone, 
which has been worn to its present surface by the 
millions of touches and kisses it has received. It 
appears to me like a lava, containing several small 
extraneous particles. Its color is now a deep red- 
dish brown, approaching to black. It is surround- 
ed on all sides by a border, composed of a sub- 
stance which I took to be a close cement of pitch 
and gravel; this border serves to support its de- 
tached pieces. Both the border and the stone 
itself are encircled by a silver band." 

Towards the end of November the caravans from 
Syria and Egypt arrived, and at the same time Mo- 
hammed Ali, so that the had], or pilgrimage, as- 
sumed a character of unusual pomp and parade. 
The Pasha's ihram consisted of two of the finest 
cashmere shawls ; the horses and camels belonging 
to himself and his large retinue, with those of the 
Pasha of Damascus and other Moslem princes, 



3 6 TRA VELS IN ARABIA. 

were decorated with the most brilliant trappings. 
On arriving, the pilgrims did not halt in Mecca, 
but continued their march to the Sacred Mountain 
of Arafat, to the eastward of the city. A camp, 
several miles in extent, was formed upon the plain, 
at the foot of the mountain, and here Burckhardt 
joined the immense crowd, in order to take his 
share in the ceremonies of the following day. 

In the morning he climbed to the top of Arafat, 
which is an irregular, isolated mass of granite, ris- 
ing only about two hundred feet above the plain. 
Overlooking thus the entire camp, he counted more 
than three thousand tents, and estimated that at 
least twenty-five thousand camels and seventy thou- 
sand human beings were there collected together. 
" The scene," he says, " was one of the most extra- 
ordinary which the earth affords. Every pilgrim 
issued from his tent to walk over the plain and take 
a view of the busy crowds assembled there. Long 
streets of tents, fitted up as bazaars, furnished 
them with all kinds of provisions. The Syrian 
and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by tlieii 
chiefs early in the morning, while thousands of ca- 
mels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs of the 
plain all around the camp. The Syrian pilgrim? 
were encamped upon the south and southwest sides 
of the mountain ; the Egyptians upon the south- 
east. Mohammed All and Soleyman, Pasha of 
Damascus, as well as several of their followers, had 
very handsome tents ; but- the most magnificent of 
all was that of the wife of Mohammed Ali, the mo- 
ther of Toossoon Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, who 



BURGKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA. 37 

had lately arrived from Cairo with a trul}^ royal 
equipage, five hundred camels being necessary to 
transport her baggage from Djidda to Mecca. Her 
tent was in fact an encampment, consisting of a do- 
zen tenlys of different sizes, inhabited by her wom- 
en ; the whole enclosed by a wall of linen cloth, 
eight hundred paces in circuit, the single entrance 
to which was guarded by eunuchs in splendid 
dresses. The beautiful embroidery on the exterior 
of this linen palace, with the various colors dis- 
played in every part of it, constituted an object 
which reminded me of some descriptions in the 
Arabian tales of the Thousand and One Nights." 

Burckhardt also gives an interesting description 
of the sermon preached on Mount Arafat, th^ 
hearing of which is an indispensable part of the 
pilgrimage : unless a person is at least present dur- 
ing its delivery, he is not entitled to the name of 
hadji, or pilgrim. The great encampment broke up 
at three o'clock in the afternoon, and Mount Ara- 
fat was soon covered from top to bottom. " The 
two Pashas, with their whole cavalry drawn up in 
two squadrons behind them, took their posts in the 
rear of the deep line of camels of the pilgrims, to 
which those of the people of Hedjaz were also 
joined ; and here they waited in solemn and re- 
spectful silence the conclusion of the sermon. 
Further removed from the preacher was the Scherif 
of Mecca, with his small body of soldiers, distin- 
guished by several green standards carried before 
him. * The two maJimals, or holy camels, which car- 
ry on their backs the high structure which serves 



38 TEA VEL8 IE ARABIA. 

as the banner of their respective caravans, made 
way with difficulty through the ranks of camels 
that encircled the southern and eastern sides of the 
hill, opposite to the preacher, and took their station 
surrounded by their guards, directly under the plat- 
form in front of him. The preacher, who is usu- 
ally the Kadi of Mecca, was mounted upon a 
finely caparisoned camel which had been led up the 
steps : it was traditionally said that Mohammed 
was always seated when he addressed his followers, 
a practice in which he was imitated by all the Ca- 
liphs who came to the pilgrimage, and who from 
this place addressed their subjects in person. The 
Turkish gentleman of Constantinople, however, un- 
used to camel-riding, could not keep his seat so 
well as the hardy Bedouin prophet, and the camel 
becoming unruly, he was soon obliged to alight 
from it. He read his sermon from a book in Ara- 
bic, which he held in his hands. At intervals of 
eVery four or five minutes he paused and stretched 
forth his arms to implore blessings from above, 
while the assembled multitudes around and before 
him waved the skirts of their ihrams over their 
heads and rent the air with shouts of lebeyk, Allah, 
huma lebeyk ! — ' Here we are at Thy bidding, oh 
Godl' During the waving of the ihrams, the sides 
of the mountain, thickly crowded as it was by the 
people in their white garments, had the appearance 
of a cataract of water ; while the green umbrellas, 
with which several thousand pilgrims sitting on 
their camels below were provided, bore some re- 
semblance to a verdant plain." 



BURCKHAEBTS JOURNEY TO MECCA. 39 

Burckhardfc performed all the remaining cerema- 
nies required of a pilgrim ; but these have been 
more recently described and with greater minute- 
ness by Captain Burton. He remained in Mecca 
for another month, unsuspected and unmolested, 
and completed his observations of a place which 
the Arabs believed they had safely sealed against 
all Christian travellers. 

Leaving Mecca with a small caravan of pilgrims 
on the 15fch of January, 1815, he reached Medina 
after a journey of thirteen days, during which he 
narrowly escaped being slain b}^ the Bedouins. 

Burckhardt was attacked with fever soon after 
his arrival at Medina, and remained there three 
months. The ceremonies prescribed for the pil- 
grims who visit the city are brief and unimportant ; 
but the description of the tomb of Mohammed is 
of sufficient interest to quote. " The mausoleum," 
he says, " stands at the southeastern corner of the 
principal mosque, and is protected from the too 
near approach of visitors by an iron raihng, paint- 
ed green, about two thirds the height of the pillars 
of the colonnade which runs around the interior of 
the mosque. The railing is of good w^orkmanship, 
in imitation of filigree, and is interwoven with 
open-worked inscriptions of yellow bronze, sup- 
posed by the vulgar to be of gold, and of so close a 
texture that no view can be obtained of the interior 
except by several small windows about six inches 
square, which are placed in the four sides of the 
railing, about five feet above the ground. On the 
south side, where are the two principal windows, 



40 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

before wHch the devout stands when praying, the 
railing is plated with silver, and the common 
inscription — 'There is no god but God, the Evi- 
dent Truth !' — is wrought in silver letters around 
the windows. The tomb itself, as well as those of 
Abu Bekr and Omar, which stand close to it, is 
concealed from the public gaze by a curtain of rich 
silk brocade of various colors, interwoven with sil- 
ver flowers and arabesques, with inscriptions in 
characters of gold running across the midst of it, 
like that of the covering of the Kaaba. Behind 
this curtain, which, according to the historian of the 
city, was formerly changed every six years, and is 
now renewed by the Porte whenever the old one is 
decayed, or when a new Sultan ascends the throne, 
none but the chief eunuchs, the attendants of the 
mosque, are permitted to enter. This Koly sanctu- 
ary once served, as the temple of Delphi did 
among the Greeks, as the public treasury of the 
nation. Here the money, jewels and other pre- 
cious articles of the people of Hedjaz were kept in 
chests, or suspended on silken ropes. Among 
these was a copy of the Koran in Cufic charac- 
ters ; a brilliant star set in diamonds and pearls, 
which was suspended directly over the Prophet's 
tomb; with all sorts of vessels filled with jewels, 
ear-rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments 
sent as presents from all parts of the empire. Most 
of these articles were carried away by the Waha- 
bees when they sacked and plundered the sacred 
cities." 

Burckhardt reached Yambo, (the port of Medi- 



i 



BURGKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA. 41 

na,) at the end of April, and, after running great 
danger from the plague, succeeded in obtaining 
passage to the Peninsula of Sinai, whence he 
slowly made his way back to Cairo. Here he wait- 
ed for two years, yainly hoping for the departure of 
a caravan for Central Africa, and meanwhile assist- 
ing Belzoni in his explorations at Thebes. In Oc- 
tober, 1817, he died, and the people who knew him 
only as Shekh Abdallah, laid his body in the Mos- 
lem burying-ground, on the eastern side of Cairo. 



CHAPTER V. 

WELLSTED's explorations in OMAN. 

THE latest and altogether the most satisfactory 
account of the interior of Oman, — the south- 
eastern portion of Arabia, now under the sway of the 
Sultan of Muscat,— has been given by Lieut. Well- 
sted. While in the Indian Navy he was employed 
for several years in surveying the southern and 
eastern coasts of Arabia. Having become somewhat 
familiar with the language and habits of the people, 
he conceived the idea of undertaking a journey to 
Derreyeh, in Nedjed, the capital of the Wahabees, 
which no traveller had then reached. The governor 
of Bombay gave him the necessary leave of absence, 
and he landed at Muscat in November, 1835. 

The Sultan, Sayid Saeed, received the young 
Englishman with great kindness, promised him all 
possible aid in his undertaking, and even arranged 
for him the route to be travelled. He was to sail 
first to the port of Sur, south of Muscat, thence 
penetrate to the country inhabited by the Beni-Abu- 
Ali tribe, and make his way northward to the Jebel 
Akhdar, or Green Mountains, which were described 



WELLSTEUS EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 43 

to him as lofty, fruitful, and populous. Having 
thus visited the most interesting portions of Oman, 
he was then to be at liberty, if the way was open, 
to take the northern route through the Desert to- 
wards Nedjed. The Sultan presented him with a 
horse and sword, together with letters to the gov- 
ernors of the districts through which he should 
pass. 

At Sur, which is a small, insignificant village, with 
a good harbor, the mountains of the interior ap- 
proach the sea, but they are here divided by a val- . 
ley which furnishes easy access to the country be- 
yond them. After a journey of four days Wellsted 
reached the tents of the tribe of Ben-Abu-Ali, at a 
point to which the English troops had penetrated in 
1821, to punish the tribe for acts of piracy. Al- ,;, 

though no Englishman had visited them since that i|)i 

time, they received him with every demonstration 
of friendship. Sheep were killed, a feast prepared, 
a guard of honor stationed around the tent, and, in 
the evening, all the men of the encampment, 250 in 
number, assembled for the purpose of exhibiting 
their war dance. Wellsted thus describes the scene : 
" They formed a circle within which five of their 
number entered. After walking leisurely around 
for some time, each challenged one of the specta- 
tors by striking him gently with the flat of his 
sword. His adversary immediately leaped forth 
and a feigned combat ensued. They have but two 
cuts, one directly downward, at the head, the other 
horizontally, across the legs. They parry neither 
with the sword nor shield, but avoid the blows by 



44 TRAVELS IN ARABIA., 

leaping or bounding backward. The blade of their 
sword is three feet in length, thin, double-edged, 
and as sharp as a razor. As they carry it upright 
before them, by a peculiar motion of the wrist they 
cause it to vibrate in a very remarkable manner, 
which has a singularly striking effect when they are 
assembled in any considerable number. It was 
part of the entertainment to fire off their match- 
locks under the legs of some one of the spectators, 
who appeared too intent on watching the game to 
observe their approach, and any signs of alarm 
which incautiously escaped the indiviual, added 
greatly to their mirth." 

In the evening a party of the Geneba Bedouins 
came in from the desert, accompanied by one of 
their chiefs. The latter readily consented that 
Wellsted should accompany him on a short journey 
into his country, and they set out the following 
morning. It was December, and the morning air 
was cold and pure ; the party swept rapidly across 
the broad, barren plains, the low hills, dotted with 
acacia trees, and the stony channels, which carried 
the floods of the rainy season to the sea. After a 
day's journey of forty-four miles they encamped 
near some brackish wells. " You wished," said the 
chief to Wellsted, " to see the country of the Be- 
douins ; tJiiSj" he continued, striking his spear into 
the firm sand, "this is the country of the Bedouins." 
Neither he nor his companions wore any clothing 
except a single cloth around the loins. Their hair, 
which is permitted to grow until it reaches the waist, 
and is usually well plastered with grease, is the 



WELLSTED'8 EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN. 45 

only covering which protects their heads from the 
sun. 

The second day's journey brought Wellsted to a 
small encampment, where the chief's wives were 
abiding. They conversed with him, unveiled, gave 
him coffee, milk, and dates, and treated him wdtJi 
all the hospitality which their scanty means allowed. 
The Beni Geneba tribe numbers about 3,500. fight- 
ing men ; they are spread over a large extent of 
Southern Arabia, and are divided into two distinct 
classes — those who live by fishing, and those wdio 
follow pastoral pursuits, A race of fishermen, how^- 
ever, is found on all parts of the Arabian coast. In 
some districts they are considered a separate and 
degraded people, with whom the genuine Bedouins 
will neither eat, associate, nor intermarry ; but 
among the Beni Geneba this distinction does not 
exist. 

Wellsted might have penetrated much further to 
the westward under the protection of this tribe, and 
was tempted to do so ; but it seemed more impor- 
tant to move northward, and get upon some one of 
the caravan tracks leading into Central Arabia. He 
therefore returned to the camp of the Beni- Abu- Ali, 
where the friendly people would hardly suffer him 
to depart, promising to build a house for him if he 
would remain a month with them. For two days 
he travelled northwards, over an undulating region 
of sand, sometimes dotted with stunted acacias, and 
reached a district called Bediah, consisting of seven 
villages, each seated in its little oasis of date palms. 
One striking feature of these towns is their low 



46 TEA VELS IN ABABIA. 

situation. They are erected in artificial hollows, 
which have been excavated to the depth of six or 
eight feet. Water is then conveyed to them in sub- 
terranean channels, from wells in the neighboring 
hills, and the soil is so fertile that irrigation suffices 
to produce the richest harvest of fruit and vege- 
tables. A single step carries the traveller from the 
glare and sand of the desert into a spot teeming 
with the most luxuriant vegetation, and embowered 
by lofty trees, whose foliage keeps out the sun. 
" Some idea," says Wellsted, " may be formed of 
the density of this shade by the effect it produces 
in lessening the terrestrial radiation. A Fahrenheit 
thermometer, which, within the house stood at 55°, 
six inches from the ground fell to 45°. From this 
cause, and the abundance of w^ater, they are always 
saturated with damp, and even in the heat of the 
day possess a clammy coldness." 

On approaching Ibrah, the next large town to the 
north, the country became hilly, and the valleys be- 
tween the abrupt limestone ranges increased in fer- 
tility. Wellsted thus describes the place : " There 
are some handsome houses in Ibrah ; but the style 
of building is quite peculiar to this part of Arabia. 
To avoid the damp and catch an occasional beam 
of the sun above the trees, they are usually very 
lofty. A parapet surrounding the upper part is 
turreted, and on some of the largest houses guns 
are mounted. The window^s and duors have the 
Saracenic arch, and every part of the building is 
profusely decorated with ornaments of stucco in bas 
relief, some in very good taste. The doors are 



WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN. 47 

also cased with brass, and have rings and other 
massive ornaments of the same metal. 

" Ibrah is justly renowned for the beauty and 
fairness of its females. Those we met on the streets 
evinced but little shyness, and on my return to the 
tent I found it filled with them. They were in high 
glee at all they saw ; every box I had was turned 
over for their inspection, and whenever I attempted 
to remonstrate against their proceedings they 
stopped my mouth with their hands. With such 
damsels there was nothing left but to laugh and 
look on." 

Travelling two days further to the northward, 
Wellsted reached the town of Semmed, where he 
found a fine stream of running water. The Shekh's 
house was a large fort, the rooms of which were 
spacious and lofty, but destitute of furniture. Sus- 
pended on pegs, protruding from the walls, were 
the saddles, cloths, and harness of the horses and 
camels. The ceilings were painted in various de- 
vices, but the floors were of mud, and only partially 
covered with mats. Lamps formed of shells, a spe- 
cies of murex, were suspended by lines from the 
ceiling. On returning to the tent, after this visit, 
the traveller found, as usual, a great crowd collected 
there, but kept in order by a boy about twelve years 
of age. He had taken possession of the tent, as its 
guardian, and allowed none to enter without his 
permission. He carried a sword longer than him- 
self, and also a stick, with which he occasionally laid 
about him. It is a part of the Arab system of edu- 
cation to cease treating boys as children at a very 



48 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

early age, and they acquire, therefore, the gravity 
and demeanor of men. 

Beyond this place Wellsted was accompanied by 
a guard of seventy armed men, for the country was 
considered insecure. For two days and a half he 
passed many small villages, separated by desert 
tracts, and then reached the town of Minna, near 
the foot of the Green Mountains. " Minna," he 
says, " differs from the other towns in having its 
cultivation in the open fields. As we crossed these, 
with lofty almond, citron, and orange trees yielding 
a delicious fragrance on either hand, exclamations 
of astonishment and admiration bui'st from us. . ' Is 
this Arabia ?' we said ; ' this the country we have 
looked on heretofore as a desert ?' Verdant fields 
of grain and sugar-cane stretching along for miles 
are before us ; streams of water, flowing in all direc- 
tions, intersect our path ; and the happy and con- 
tented appearance of the peasants agreeably helps to 
fill up the smiling picture. The atmosphere was 
delightfully clear and pure ; and, as we trotted joy- 
ously along, giving or returning the salutations of 
peace or welcome, I could almost fancy that we had 
at last reached that ' Araby the Blessed,' which I 
had been accustomed to regard as existing only in 
the fictions of our poets. 

" Minna is an old town, said to have been erected 
at the period of Narhirvan's invasion ; but it bears, 
in common with the other towns, no indications of 
antiquity ; its houses are lofty, but do not differ 
from those of Ibrah or Semmed. There are two 
square towers, about one hundred and seventy feet 



I 



WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN. 49 

in height, nearly in the centre of the town ; at 
their bases the breadth of the wall is not more than 
two feet, and neither side exceeds in length eight 
yards. It is therefore astonishing, considering the 
rudeness of the materials, (they have nothing but un- 
hewn stones and a coarse but apparently strong- 
cement,) that, with proportions so meagre, they 
should have been able to carry them to their pre- 
sent elevation. The guards, who are constantly on 
the lookout, ascend by means of a rude ladder, 
formed by placing bars of wood in a diagonal direc- 
tion in one of the side angles within the interior of 
the building." 

The important town of Neswah, at the western 
base of the Jebel Akdar, or Green Mountains, is a 
short day's journey from Minna. On arriving there 
Wells ted was received in a friendly manner by the 
governor, and lodged, for the first time since leaving 
Muscat, in a substantial house. He was allowed to 
visit the fortress, which, in that region, is considered 
impregnable. He was admitted by an iron door of 
great strength, and, ascending through a vaulted 
passage, passed through six others equally massive 
before reaching the summit. The form of the fort 
is circular, its diameter being nearly one hundred 
yards, and to the height of ninety feet it has been 
filled up by a solid mass of earth and stones. Seven 
or eight wells have been bored through this, from 
several of which they obtain a plentiful suj)ply of 
water, while those which are dry serve as magazines 
for their shot and ammunition. A wall forty feet 
high surrounds the summit, making the whole 



50 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

height of the fortress one hundred and fifty feet. 
It is a work of extraordinary labor, and from its 
appearance probably of considerable antiquity ; but 
no certain intelligence could be obtained on this 
point. 

On Christmas day, Wellsted left Neswah on an 
excursion to the celebrated Green Mountains. The 
Shekh of Tanuf, the first village where he encamped, 
endeavored in every possible way to dissuade him 
from undertaking the journey ; but his resolute 
manner and a few gifts overcame the difficulty. 
Mounted on strong asses, the party commenced 
ascending a precipitous ridge by a track so narrow 
that they seemed at times to be suspended over 
precipices of unknown depth. On the second day 
they reached the village of Seyk. " By means of 
steps," he says, " we descended the steep side of a 
narrow glen, about four hundred feet in depth, pass- 
ing in our progress several houses perched on crags 
or other acclivities, their wails built up in some 
places so as to appear but a continuation of the 
precipice. These small, snug, compact-looking 
dwellings have been erected by the natives one 
above the other, so that their appearance from the 
bottom of the glen, hanging as it were in mid-air, 
afibrds to the spectator a most novel and interesting 
picture. Here we found, amid a great variety of 
fruits and trees, pomegranates, citrons, almonds, 
nutmegs, and walnuts, with coffee-bushes and vines. 
In the summer, these together must yield a delicious 
fragrance ; but it was now winter, and they were 
leafless. Water flows in many places from the upper 



WE'LSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN. 51 

part of the hills, and is received at the lower in 
small reservoirs, whence it is distributed all over the 
face of the country. From the narrowness of this 
glen, and the steepness of its sides, only the lower 
part of it receives the warmth of the sun's rays for 
a short period of the day ; and even, at the time of 
our arrival we found it so chilly, that, after a short 
halt, we were very happy to continue our journey." 
They halted for the night at a village called Shi- 
razi, in the heart of the mountains, the highest 
peaks of which here reach a height of 6,000 feet 
above the sea. The inhabitants belong to a tribe 
called the Beni Ryam, who are considered infidels 
by the people of Neswah because they cultivate the 
grape for the purpose of making wine. The next 
day the Arabs who formed ^Wellsted's escort left 
him, and he had considerable difficulty in returning 
to Neswah by another road. From this point he 
had intended starting for Central Arabia, but the 
funds which he expected did not arrive from Mus- 
cat, the British Agent there having refused to make 
the necessary advances. Wellsted thereupon ap- 
plied directly to the Sultan, Sayd Saeed, for a loan, 
and, w4iile waiting an answer, made an excursion 
into the desert, fifty miles to the westward of Nes- 
wah. With a view to familiarize himself with the 
manners and domestic life of the Bedouins, he 
mixed with them during this trip, living and sleep- 
ing in their huts and tents. On all occasions he 
was treated with kindness, and often with a degree 
of hospitality above rather than below the means 
of those who gave it. 



52 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

Althoiigh the Sultan of Muscat was willing to 
furnish the necessary supplies, and arrangements 
had been made which Wellsted felt sure would have 
enabled him to penetrate into the interior, he was 
prevented from going forward by a violent fever, 
from the effects of which he remained insensible for 
five days. Recovering sufficiently to travel, his 
only course was to return at once to the seacoast, 
and on the 2'2d of January, 1836, he left Neswah 
for the little port of Sib, where he arrived after a 
slow journey of eight days. He relates the follow- 
ing incident, which occurred at Semayel, the half- 
way station : " Weary and faint from the fatigue of 
the day's journey, in order to enjoy the freshness of 
the evening breeze I had my carpet spread beneath 
a tree. An Arab passing by, paused to gaze upon 
me, and, touched by my condition and the melan- 
choly which was depicted on my countenance, he 
proffered the salutation of peace, pointed to the 
crystal stream which sparkled at my feet, and said : 
' Look, friend, for running water maketh the heart 
glad !' With his hands folded over his breast, that 
mute but most graceful of Eastern salutations, he 
bowed and passed on. I was in a situation to esti- 
mate sympathy ; and so much of that feeling was 
exhibited in the manner of this son of the desert, 
that I have never since recurred to the incident, 
trifling as it is, without emotion." 

A rest of four weeks at Sib recruited the trav- 
eller's strength, and he determined to make another 
effort to reach Central Arabia. He therefore ap- 
plied to the Sultan for an escort to Bireimah, the 



WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS JiV OMAN. 53 

first town of the Wahabees, beyond tbe northern 
frontier of Oman. The Sultan sent a guide, but ob- 
jected to the undertaking, as word had just arrived 
that the Wahabees were preparing to invade his 
territory. Wellsted, however, was not willing to 
give up his design without at least making the at- 
tempt. He followed the coast, north of Muscat, as 
far as the port of Suweik, where he was most hospi- 
tably received by the wife of the governor, Seyd 
Hilal, who was absent. " A huge meal, consisting 
of a great variety of dishes, sufficient for thirty or 
forty people, was prepared in his kitchen, and 
brought to us on large copper dishes, twice a day 
during the time we remained. On these occasions 
there was a great profusion of blue and gilt China 
ware, cut glass dishes, and decanters containing 
sherbet instead of wine." 

" The Shekh," Wellsted continues, " after his re- 
turn, usually spent the evening with us. On one 
occasion he was accompanied by a professed story- 
teller, who appeared to be a great favorite with him. 
' Whenever I feel melancholy or out of order,' said 
he, * I send for this man, who very soon restores me 
to my wonted spirits.' From the falsetto tone in 
which the story was chanted, I could not follow the 
thread of the tale, and, upon my mentioning this 
to him, the Shekh very kindly sent me the manu- 
script, of which the reciter had availed himself. 
With little variation I found it to be the identical 
Sinbad the Sailor, so familiar to the readers of the 
Arabian Nights. I little thought, when first I pe- 
rused these fascinating tales in my own language. 



54 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

that it would ever be my lot to listen to the original 
in a spot so congenial and so remote." 

Leaving Suweik on the 4th of March, Wellsted 
was deserted by his camel-men at the end of the 
first day's march, but succeeded in engaging others 
at a neighboring village. The road, which at first 
led between low hills, now entered a deep mountain- 
gorge, inclosed by abrupt mountains of rock, several 
thousand feet in height. 

For two days the party followed this winding de- 
file, where the precipices frequently towered from 
three to four thousand feet over their heads. Then, 
having passed the main chain, the country became 
more open, and they reached the village of Muskin, 
in the territory of the Beni Kalban Arabs. Their 
progress beyond this point was slow and tedious, on 
account of the country being divided into separate 
districts, which are partly independent of each other. 
At the next town, Makiniyat, the Sliekh urged them 
to go no further, on account of the great risk, but 
finally consented to furnish an escort to Obri, the 
last town to the northward, which acknowledges the 
sway of Muscat. This was distant two days' jour- 
ney — the first through a broad valley between pyra- 
midal hills, the second over sandy plains, which 
indicated their approach to the Desert. 

Obri is one of the largest and most populous 
towns in Oman. The inhabitants devote themselves 
almost exclusively to agriculture, and export large 
quantities of indigo, sugar and dates. On arriving, 
Wellsted went immediately to the residence of the 
Shekh, whom he found to be a very different char- 



I 



WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN. 55 

acter from the officials whom he had hitherto en- 
countered. " Upon my producing the Imam's 
letters," says he, "he read them, and took his leave 
without returning any answer. About an hour after- 
wards he sent a verbal message to request that I 
should lose no time in quitting his town, as he 
begged to inform me, what he supposed I could not 
have been aware of, that it was then filled with 
nearly two thousand Wahabees. This was, indeed, 
news to us ; it was somewhat earlier than we antici- 
pated falling in with them, but we put a good 
face on the matter, and behaved as coolly as we 
could." 

The next morning the Shekh returned, with a po- 
sitive refusal to allow them to proceed further. 
Wellsted demanded a written refusal, as e^^dence 
which he could present to the Sultan, and this the 
Shekh at once promised to give. His object was 
evidently to force the traveller away from the place, 
and such was the threatening appearance of things, 
that the latter had no wish to remain. The Wa- 
habees crowded around the party in great numbers, 
and seemed only waiting for some pretext to com- 
mence an affray. " When the Shekh came and pre- 
sented me with the letter for the Sultan," says 
Wellsted, " I knew it would be in vain to make any 
further effort to shake his resolution, and therefore 
did not attempt it. In the meantime news had 
spread far and wide that two Englishmen, with a 
box of ' dollars,' but in reality containing only the 
few clothes that we carried with us, had halted in 



56 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

the town. The Wahabees and other tribes had met 
in deliberation, while the lower classes of the towns- 
folk were creating noise and confusion. The Shekh 
either had not the shadow of any influence, or was 
afraid to exercise it, and his followers evidently 
wished to share in the plunder. It was time to act. 
I called Ali on one side, told him to make neither 
noise nor confusion, but to collect the camels without 
delay. In the meantime we had packed up the 
tent, the crowd increasing every minute ; the camels 
were ready, and we mounted on them. A leader, or 
some trifling incident, was now only wanting to 
furnish them with a pretext for an onset. They fol- 
lowed us with hisses and various other noises, until 
we got sufficiently clear to push briskly forward ; 
and, beyond a few stones being thrown, we reached 
the outskirts of the town without further molesta- 
tion. I had often before heard of the inhospitable 
character of the inhabitants of this place. The 
neighboring Arabs observe that to enter Obri, a man 
must either go armed to the teeth, or as a beggar with 
a cloth, and that not of decent quality, around his 
waist. Thus, for a second time, ended my hopes of 
reaching Derreyeh from this quarter." 

Wellsted was forced to return to Suweik, narrowly 
escaping a Bedouin ambush on the v/ay. As a last 
attempt, he followed the coast as far as Schinas, 
near the mouth of the Straits of Ormuz, and thence 
dispatched a messenger to the Wahabees at Birsi- 
mah. This plan also failed, and he then returned 
to India. He has given us, however, the only au- 



WELLSTED'S EXPL0BATI0N8 IN OMAN. 57 

thentic account of the scenery and inhabitants of 
the interior of Oman, and his travels are thus 
an important contribution to our knowledge of 
Arabia. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

wellsted's discovery op an ancient city in 
hadramaut. 

WHILE employed in the survey of the south- 
ern coast of Arabia in the spring of 1835, 
Lieutenant Wellsted was occupied for a time near 
the cape called Eas el-Aseida, in Hadramaut, 
about one hundred miles east of Aden. On this 
cape there is a watch-tower, with the guardian of 
which, an officer named Hamed, he became ac- 
quainted ; and on learning from the Bedouins of 
the neighborhood that extensive ruins, which they 
described as having been built by infidels, and of 
great antiquity, were to be found at some distance J 

inland, he prevailed upon .the officer to procure him ■ 

camels and guides. 

One day, having landed with a midshipman in 
order to visit some inscriptions at a few hours' dis- 
tance, the Bedouins who brought the camels re- 
fused to go to the place, but expressed their will- 
ingness to convey the two Europeans to the ruined 
city. Hamed declined" to accompany them, on the 
plea of sickness, and they were unsupplied with 
provisions or presents for the Shekhs of the vil- 



DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY, 59 

lages ou the way. Still the chance was too tempt- 
ing to be lost. Wellsted decided to trust himself to 
the uncertain protection of the Bedouins, sent his 
boat to the surveying vessel with a message that it 
should meet him at a point further to the westward, 
at the end of three days, and set out for the ruins 
late in the afternoon. 

Leaving , the seashore at sunset, they struck 
northward into the interior, and travelled until 
after midnight, passing several villages of the Diya- 
bi Bedouins, a very fierce and powerful tribe, who 
are dreaded by all their neighbors. Scraping for 
themselves beds in the sand, the travellers slept un- 
til daybreak without being disturbed. The path 
soon after mounted a ledge about four hundred feet 
in height, from the summit of which they obtained 
an extensive but dreary view of the surrounding 
country. Their route lay along a broad valley, 
skirted on each side by a lofty range of mountains, 
by eight o'clock the sun became so oppressive that 
the Bedouins halted under the shade of some 
stunted tamarisk trees. " Within these burning 
hollows," says Wellsted, "the sun's rays are con- 
centrated and thrown off as from a mirror : the 
herbs around were scorched to a cindery blackness ; 
not a cloud obscured the firmament, and the breeze 
which moaned past us was of a glowing heat, like 
that escaping from the mouth of a furnace. Our 
guides dug hollows in the sand, and thrust their 
blistered feet within them. Although we were not 
long in availing ourselves of the practical lesson 



60 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

they had taught ns, I began to be far from pleased 
with their churhsh demeanor." 

During the day they travelled over sandy and 
stony ridges, and late in the afternoon entered the 
Wady Meifah, where they found wells of good wa- 
ter and scanty vegetation. " The country now be- 
gan to assume a far different aspect. Numerous 
hamlets, interspersed amid extensive date groves, 
verdant fields of grain and herds of sleek cattle, 
showed themselves in every direction, and we now 
fell in with parties of inhabitants for the first time 
since leaving the seashore. Astonishment was de- 
picted on their countenances, but as we did not 
halt, they had no opportunity of gratifying their 
curiosity by gazing at us for any length of time." 

One of the Bedouins, however, in spite of Well- 
sted's remonstrances, told the people that the trav- 
ellers were in search of buried treasure. When the 
latter attempted to encamp near a village, the inha- 
bitants requested them to remove ; the guides proved 
to be ignorant of the road in the night, and they 
would have been suffered to wander about without 
shelter, but for the kindness of an old woman, who 
conducted them to her house. This proved to be a 
kind of khan for travellers, and was already so 
crowded that the travellers were obliged to sleep in 
an open courtyard. 

They were hardly prepared for the scene Avhich 
daylight disclosed to them. "The dark verdure of 
fields of millet, sorghum, tobacco, etc., extended as 
far as the eye could reach. Mingled with these we 
had the soft acacia and the stately but more som- 



DISCOVERT OF AN ANCIENT CITY, 61 

bre foliage of the date palm ; while the creaking of 
numerous wheels with which the grounds were irri- 
gated, and in the distance several rude plows 
drawn by oxen, the ruddy and lively appearance of 
the people, who now flocked towards us from all 
quarters, and the delightful and refreshing coolness 
of the morning air, combined to form a scene which 
he who gazes on the barren aspect of the coast 
could never anticipate." 

After three hours' travel through this bright and 
populous region, they came in sight of the ruins, 
which the inhabitants call Nakah el-Hobdjar, (mean- 
ing " The Excavation from the Rock.") Accord- 
ing to Wellsted's estimate, they are about fifty 
miles from the coast. 

The following is Wellsted's description of the 
place : " The hill upon which these ruins are situ- 
ated stands out in the centre of the valley, and 
divides a stream which passes, during floods, on 
either side of it. It is nearly 800 yards in length, 
and about 350 yards at its extreme breadth. About 
a third of the height from its base a massive wall, 
averaging from thirty to forty feet in height, is car- 
ried completely around the eminence, and flanked 
by square towers, erected at equal distances. There 
are but two entrances, north and south ; a hol- 
low, square tower, measuring fourteen feet, stands 
on both sides of these. Their bases extend to 
the plain below, and are carried out considerably 
beyond the rest of the building. Between the 
towers, at an elevation of twenty feet from the 
plain, there is an oblong platform which projects 



62 



TRAVELS IR ARABIA, 



about eighteen feet without and within the walls. 
A flight of steps was apparently once attached to 
either extremity of the building. 

" Within the entrance, at an elevation of ten feet 
from the platform, we found inscriptions. They 
are executed with extreme care, in two horizontal 
lines on the smooth face of the stones, the letters 
being about eight inches long. Attempts have been 
made, though without success, to obliterate them. 
From the conspicuous situation which they occupy, 
there can be but little doubt but that, when deci- 
phered, they will be found to contain the name of 
the founder of the building, as well as the date and 
and purport of its erection.^ The whole of the 
walls and towers, and some of the edifices within, 
are built of the same material — a "compact grayish 
colored marble, hewn to the required shape with 
the utmost nicety. The dimensions of the slabs at 
the base were from five to seven feet in length, two 
to three in height, and three to four in breadth. 

"Let us now visit the interior, where the most 
conspicuous object is an oblong square building, the 
walls of which face the cardinal points : its dimen- 
sions are twenty-seven by seventeen yards. The 
walls are fronted with a kind of freestone, each 
felab being cut of the same size, and the whole so 
beautifully put together that I endeavored in vain 
to insert the blade of a small penknife between 



* The inscription, which is copied in Lieutenant Wellstsd's 
work, appears to be in the Himyaritic character. If any transla- 
tion cf it has ever been made, the compiler is unable to say 
where it can be found. 



DISCOVERT OF AN ANCIENT CITY. 63 

them. The outer, unpolished surface is covered 
with small chisel-marks, which the Bedouins have 
mistaken for writing. From the extreme care dis- 
played in the construction of this building, I have 
no doubt that it is a temple, and my disappoint- 
ment at finding the interior filled up with the ruins 
of the fallen roof was very great. Had it re- 
mained entire, we might have obtained some clue 
to guide us in our researches respecting the form of 
religion professed by the earlier Arabs. Above 
and beyond this building there are several other 
edifices, with nothing peculiar in their form or 
appearance. 

" In no portion of the ruins did we succeed in 
tracing any remains of arches or columns, nor 
could we discover on their surface any of those 
fragments of pottery, colored glass or metals, 
which are always found in old Egyptian towns, and 
which I also saw in those we discovered on the 
northwest coast of Arabia. Except the attempts 
to deface the inscriptions, there is no other appear- 
ance of the buildings having suffered from any rav- 
ages besides those of time ; and owing to the dry- 
ness of the chmate, as well as the hardness of the 
material, every stone, even to the marking of the 
chisel, remains as perfect as the day it was hewn. 
We were anxious to ascertain if the Arabs had 
preserved any tradition concerning the building, 
but they refer them, like other Arabs, to their pa- 
gan ancestors. *Do you believe,' said one of the 
Bedouins to me upon my telling him that his an- 
cestors were then capable of greater works than 



64 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

themselves, *that tliese stones were raised by the 
unassisted hands of the Kafirs? No! no! They 
had devils, legions of devils, (God preserve us from 
them !) to aid them.' " 

On his return to the sea, which occupied a day 
and a half, Wellsted was kindly treated by the na- 
tives, and suffered only from the intense heat. 
The vessel was fortunately waiting at the appointed 
place. Since the journey was made, (in 1836,) Ba- 
ron von Wrede, a German traveller, has succeeded 
in exploring a portion of Hadramant, penetrating 
as far as Wady Doan, a large and populous valley, 
more than a hundred miles from the coast. But a 
thorough exploration of both Yemen and Hadra- 
mant is still wanting, and when made, it will un- 
doubtedly result in many important discoveries. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

burton's pilgrimage to MEDINA AND MECCA. 

CAPT. EICHARD F. BUETON, the discoverer 
of the great lake Tanganyika, in Central Africa, 
first became known to the world by his daring and 
entirely successful visit to Medina and Mecca, in the 
year 1853, in the disguise of a Moslem pilgrim. 
Although his journey was that of Burckhardt, re- 
versed, and he describes the same ceremonies, his 
account supplies many deficiencies in the narrative 
of his predecessor, and has the merit of a livelier 
and more graphic style. 

Burton's original design was to cross the Arabian 
Peninsula from west to east, as Palgrave has since 
done, and the Royal Geographical Society was dis- 
posed to accept his services. But he failed to ob- 
tain a sufficient leave of absence from the East 
India Company, which only granted him a furlough 
of one year, — a period quite insufficient for the 
undertaking. He therefore determined to prove 
at least his fitness for the task, by making the pil- 
grimage to the holy cities. He was already famiHar 
with the Arabic and Persian languages, and had 
the advantage of an Eastern cast of countenance. 



66 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

Like Burckhardt, lie assumed an Oriental charac- 
ter at the stay, and during the voyage from South- 
ampton to Alexandria was supposed to be a Per- 
sian prince. For two or three months he laboriously 
applied himself in Egypt to the necessary religious 
studies, joined a society of dervishes, under the 
name of Shekli Abdullah, kept the severe fast of 
Ramazan, and familiarized himself with all the or- 
thodox forms of ablution, prayer, and prostration. 
He gave himself out to be an Affghan by birth, but 
long absent from his native country, a character 
which was well adapted to secure him against de- 
tection. During his stay in Cairo he made the ac- 
quaintance of a boy named Mohammed el-Basyuni, 
a native of Mecca, who became his companion for 
the journey, and who seems not to have suspected 
his real character until the pilgrimage was over. 

Having purchased a tent and laid in an ample 
supply of provisions, with about $100 in money, he 
went to Suez about the 1st of July, with the avowed 
purpose of proceeding to Mecca by way of Djidda, 
yet with the secret intention of visiting Medina on 
the way. Here he became acquainted with a com- 
pany of pilgrims, whose good will he secured by 
small loans of money, and joined them in taking 
passage in a large Arab boat, bound for Yembo. 
The vessel was called the " Golden Wire." " Im- 
mense was the confusion," says Burton, " on the 
eventful day of our departure. Suppose us standing 
on the beach, on the morning of a fiery July day, 
carefully watching our hurriedly -packed goods and 
chattels, surrounded by a mob of idlers who are not 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 



67 



too proud to pick up waifs and strays, while pilgrims 
rush about apparently mad, and friends are weeping, 
acquaintances vociferating adieux, boatmen demand- 
ing fees, shopmen claiming debts, women shrieking 
and talking with inconceivable power, children cry- 
ing, — in short, for an hour or so we were in the 
thick of a human storm. To confound confusion, 
the boatmen have moored their skiff half a dozen 
yards away from the shore, lest the porters should 
be unable to make more than double their fare 
from the pilgrims." 

They sailed on the 6th of July, and were five 
days in reaching the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba. 
While crossing to the Arabian shore, the pilgrims 
are accustomed to repeat the following prayer, which 
is a good example of Moslem invocation : " Allah 
O Exalted, O Almighty, O All-pitiful, O All-power- 
ful, thou art my God, and sufficeth to me the know- 
ledge of it ! Glorified be the Lord my Lord, and 
glorified be the faith my faith ! Thou givest victory 
to whom thou pleasest, and thou art the glorious, 
the merciful ! We pray thee for safety in our goings- 
forth and in our standings -still, in our words and 
our designs, in our dangers of temptation and 
doubts, and the secret designs of our hearts. Sub- 
ject unto us this sea, even as thou didst subject the 
deep to Moses, and as thou didst subject the fire to 
Abraham, and as thou didst subject the iron to 
David, and as thou didst subject the wind, and 
devils, and genii, and mankind to Solomon, and as 
thou didst subject the moon and El-Burak to Mo- 
hammed, upon whom be Allah's mercy and His 



68 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

blessing ! And subject nnto us all the seas in earth 
and heaven, in the visible and in thine "invisible 
worlds, the sea of this life, and the sea of futurity. 
O thou who reignest over everything, and unto 
whom all things return, Khjar ! Khyar !" 

A further voyage of another week, uncomfortable 
and devoid of incident, brought the vessel to Yembo. 
As the pilgrims were desirous of pushing on to Me- 
dina, camels were hired on the day of arrival, and, 
a week's provisions having been purchased, the little 
caravan started the next afternoon. Burton, by the 
advice of his companions, assumed the Arab dress, 
but travelled in a litter, both because of an injury 
to his foot, and because he could thus take notes on 
the way without being observed. On account of 
the heat the caravan travelled mostly by night ; the 
country, thus dimly seen, was low and barren for 
the first two days, but on the third day they reached 
a wilder region, which Burton thus describes : " We 
travelled through a country fantastic in its deso- 
lation — a mass of huge hills, barren plains, and 
desert vales. Even the sturdy acacias here failed, 
and in some places the camel grass could not find 
earth enough to take root in. The road wound 
among mountains, rocks, and hills of granite, over 
broken ground, flanked by huge blocks and boulders, 
piled up as if man's art had aided nature to dis- 
figure herself. Vast clefts seemed like scars on the 
hideous face of earth ; here they widened into dark 
caves, there they were choked up with glistening 
drift sand. Not a bird or a beast was to be seen or 
heard ; their presence would have argued the vicinity 



FILORIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA, 69 

of water, and though my companions opined that 
Bedouins were lurking among the rocks, I decided 
that these Bedouins were the creatures of their 
fears. Above, a sky like polished blue steel, with a 
tremendous blaze of yellow light glared upon us, 
without the thinnest veil of mist or cloud. The distant 
prospect, indeed, was more attractive than the near 
view, because it borrowed a bright azure tinge from 
the intervening atmosphere ; but the jagged peaks 
and the perpendicular streaks of shadow down the 
flanks of the mountainous background showed that 
no change for the better was yet in store for us." 

At the little towns of El-Hamra and Bir Abbas 
the caravan rested a day, suffering much from the 
intense heat, and with continual quarrels between 
the pilgrims and the Arabs to whom the camels 
belonged. At the latter place they were threatened 
with a detention of several days, but the difficulty 
was settled, and they set out upon the most danger- 
ous portion of the road. "We travelled that night," 
says Burton, " up a dry river-course in an easterly 
direction, and at early dawn found ourselves in an 
ill-famed gorge, called Shuab el-Hadj (the ' Pilgrim's 
Pass.') The loudest talkers became silent as we 
neared it, and their countenances showed appre- 
hension written in legible characters. Presently, 
from the high, precipitous cliff on our left, thin blue 
curls of smoke, — somehow or other they caught 
every eye, — rose in the air, and instantly afterwards 
rang the loud, sharp cracks of the hill-men's match- 
locks, echoed by the rocks on the right. My ehug- 
duf had been broken by the camel's falling during 



70 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

the night, so I called out to Mansiir that we had 
better splice the frame-work with a bit of rope ; he 
looked up, saw me laughing, and with an ejaculation 
of disgust disappeared. A number of Bedouins 
were to be seen swarming like hornets over the 
crests of the rocks, boys as well as men carrying 
huge weapons, and climbing with the agility of cats. 
They took up comfortable places in the cut-throat 
eminence, and began firing upon us with perfect 
conyenience to themselves. The height of the hills 
and the glare of the rising sun prevented my seeing 
objects very distinctly, but my companions pointed 
out to me places where the rock had been scarped, 
and a kind of breastwork of rough stones — the San- 
gah of Affghanistan, piled up as a defence, and a 
rest for the long barrel of the matchlock. It was 
useless to challenge the Bedouins to come down 
and fight us upon the plain like men ; and it was 
equally unprofitable for our escort to fire upon a foe 
ensconced behind stones. We had, therefore, nothing 
to do but to blaze away as much powder and to 
veil ourselves in as much smoke as possible ; the re- 
sult of the affair was that we lost twelve men, be- 
sides camels and other beasts of burden. Though 
the bandits showed no symptoms of bravery, and 
confined themselves to slaughtering the enemy from 
their hill-top, my companions seemed to consider 
this questionable affair a most gallant exploit." 

After two more days of severe travel, the pilgrims, 
at early dawn, came in sight of the holy city of Me- 
dina. Burton thus describes the approach, and the 
view from the western ridge : " Half an hour after 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 7I 

leaving the Wady el-Akik, or " Blessed Yalley," we 
came to a huge flight of steps, roughly cut in a long, 
broad line of black, scoriaceous basalt. This is 
called the Mudarraj, or flight of steps over the 
western ridge of the so-called El-Harratain '; it is 
holy ground, for the Prophet spoke well of it. 
Arrived at the top, we passed through a lane of 
black scoria, with steep banks on both sides, and, 
after a few minutes, a full view of the city suddenly 
opened on us. We halted our beasts as if by word 
of command. All of us descended, in imitation of 
the pious of old, and sat down, jaded and hungry 
as we were, to feast our eyes with a view of the 
Holy City. The prayer was, ' O Allah ! this is the 
Haram (sanctuary) of the Prophet ; make it to us a 
protection from hell fire, and a .refuge from eternal 
punishment ! O, open the gates of thy mercy, and 
let us pass through them to the land of joy !' " 

" As we looked eastward, the sun arose out of the 
horizon of low hills, blurred and dotted with small 
tufted trees, which gained a giant stature from the 
morning mists, and the earth was stained with gold 
and purple. Before us lay a spacious plain, 
bounded in front by the undulating ground of 
Nedjed ; on the left was a grim barrier of rocks, the 
celebrated Mount Ohod, with a clump of verdure 
and a white dome or two nestling at its base. 
Rightward, broad streaks of lilac-colored mists were 
thick with gathered dew, there pierced and thinned 
by the morning rays, stretched over the date groves 
and the gardens of Kuba, which stood out in 
emerald green from the dull tawny surface of the 



72 



TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 



plain. Below, at the distance of about two miles, 
lay El Medina ; at first sight it appeared a large 
place, but a closer inspection proved the impression 
to be an erroneous one." 

On arriving at Medina, Burton became the guest 
of one of the company he had met at Suez, 
and, during his stay of a month in the city, per- 
formed all the religious ceremonies and visitations 
which are prescribed for the pilgrim. He gives the 
following description of the Prophet's mosque : 
"Passing through muddy streets — they had been 
freshly watered before evening time — I came sud- 
denly upon the mosque. Like that at Mecca, the 
approach is choked up by ignoble buildings, some 
actually touching the holy ' enceinte,' others sepa- 
rated by a lane compared with which the road 
around St. Paul's is a Yatican square. There is 
no outer front, no general aspect of the Prophet's 
mosque ; consequently, as a building it has neither 
beauty nor dignity. And entering the Bab el-Rah- 
mah — the Gate of Pity — by a diminutive flight of 
steps, I was astonished at the mean and tawdry ap- 
pearance of a place so universally venerated in the 
Moslem world. It is not like the Meccan mosque, 
grand and simple — the expression of a single sub- 
lime idea ; the longer I looked at it the more it 
suggested the resemblance of a musuem of second- 
rate art, a curiosity-shop, full of ornaments that 
are not accessories, and decorated with pauper 
splendor." 

We must also quote the traveller's account of his 
manner of spending the day, during his residence in 



PILGBIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 73 

Medina : " At dawn we arose, washed, prayed and 
broke our fast upon a crust of stale bread, before 
smoking a pipe, and drinking a cup of coffee. 
Then it was time to dress, to mount, and to visit 
the Haram in one of the holy places outside the 
city. Returning before the sun became intolerable, 
we sat together, and with conversation, shishas and 
chibouques, coffee and cold water perfumed with 
mastich-smoke, we whiled away the time till our 
ariston, an early dinner which appeared at the pri- 
mitive hour of 11 A. M. The meal was served m. 
the majlis on a large copper tray, sent from the 
upper apartments. Ejaculating " Bismillah " — the 
Moslem grace — we all sat round it, and dipped equal 
hands in the dishes set before us. We had usually 
unleavened bread, different kinds of meat and vege- 
table stews, and at the end of the first course plain 
boiled rice, eaten with spoons ; then came the fruits, 
fresh dates, grapes, and pomegranates. After 
dinner I used invariably to find some excuse — such 
as the habit of a " Kayliilah," (mid-day siesta,) or 
the being a " Saudawi " or person of melancholy 
temperament, to have a rug spread in the dark pas- 
sage, and there to lie reading, dozing, smoking or 
writing, all through the worst part of the day, from 
noon to sanset. Then came the hour for receiving 
and paying visits. The evening prayers ensued, 
either at home or in the Haram, followed by our 
supper, another substantial meal like the dinner, 
but more plentiful, of bread, meat, vegetables, rice 
and fruits. In the evening, we sometimes dressed 
in common clothes, and went to the cafe ; sometimes 



7i TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

on festive occasions we indulged in a late supper of 
sweetmeats, pomegranates and dried fruits. Usually 
we sat upon mattresses spread upon the ground in 
the open air at the Shekh's door, receiving evening 
visits, chatting, telling stories, and making merry, 
till each, as he felt the approach of the drowsy god, 
sank down into his proper place, and fell asleep." 

Burton was charmed with the garden and date- 
groves about Medina, and enjoyed the excursions, 
which were enjoined upon him as a pilgrim, to Jebel 
Ohod, the mosque of Kuba, and other places in the 
vicinity of the city. On the 28th of August the 
caravan of pilgrims from Damascus arrived, and, on 
account of danger from the Bedouins, decided to 
leave on the fourth day afterwards, taking the 
Desert road to Mecca, the same travelled by the 
Caliph Haroun El-Baschid and his wife Zobeida, 
instead of the lonoer road nearer the coast, which 
Burckhardt had followed. When this plan was an- 
nounced. Burton and his companions had but twenty- 
four hours to make the necessary preparations ; but 
by hard work they were ready. Leaving Medina, 
they hastened onward to secure good places in the 
caravan, which was composed ol:' about 7,000 pil- 
grims, and extended over many miles of the road. 

For the first four days they travelled southward 
over a wild, desolate country, almost destitute of 
water and vegetation. On account of heat, as well 
as for greater security, the journey was made chiefly 
by night, although the forced marches between the 
wells obliged them sometimes to endure the greatest 
heat of the day. Burton says : — " I can scarcely 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 75 

find words to express the weary horrors of a long 
night's march, during which the hapless traveller, 
fuming, if a European, with disappointment in his 
hopes of " seeing the country," is compelled to sit 
upon the back of a creeping camel. The day sleep 
too is a kind of lethargy, and it is all but impossible 
to preserve an appetite during the hours of heat." 

After making ninety-nine miles from Medina, they 
reached the village of El Suwayrkiyah, which is in- 
cluded within the Meccan territory. The town, con- 
consisting of about 100 houses, is built at the base 
and on the sides of a basaltic mass, which rises 
abruptly from the hard clayey plain. The summit 
is converted into a rude fortalice by a bulwark of 
uncut stone, piled up so as to make a parapet. The 
lower part of the town is protected by a mud wall, 
with the usual semicircular towers. Inside there is a 
bazaar, well supplied with meat (principally mutton) 
by the neighboring Bedouins, and wheat, barley, 
and dates are grown near the town. There is little 
to describe in the narrow streets and the mud 
houses, wdiich aise essentially Arab. The fields 
around are divided into little square plots by earthen 
ridges and stone walls ; some of the palms are fine 
grown trees, and the wells appeared numerous. The 
water is near the surface and plentiful, but it has a 
brackish taste, highly disagreeable after a few days' 
use, and the effects are the reverse of chalybeate. 

Seventeen miles beyond the El Suwayrkiyah is 
the small village of Sufayuah, beyond which the 
country becomes again very wild and barren. Bur- 
ton thus describes the scenery, the day after leaving 



76 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

Sufayuah : " This day's march was peculiarly 
Arabia. It was a desert peopled only with echoes — 
a place of death for what little there is to die in it 
— a wilderness, where, to use my companion's phrase, 
there is nothing but He (Allah.) Nature, scalped, 
flayed, discovered her anatomy to the gazer's eye. 
The horizon was a sea of mirage ; gigantic sand- 
columns whirled over the plain ; and on both sides 
of our road were huge piles of bare rock, standing 
detached upon the surface of sand and clay. Here 
they appeared in oval lumps, heaped up with a 
semblance of symmetry ; there a single boulder 
stood, with its narrow foundation based upon a pe- 
destal of low, dome-shaped rock. All are of a pink 
coarse-grained granite, which flakes off in large 
crusts under the influence of the atmosphere," 

After four more long marches, the caravan reached 
a station ^ called El Zaribah, where the pilgrims 
halted a day to assume the ihram, or costume which 
they wear on approaching Mecca. They were now 
in the country of the Utaybah Bedouins, the most 
fierce and hostile of all the tribes on the road. 
Although only two marches, or fifty miles, from 
Mecca, the pilgrims were by no means safe, as the 
night after they left Zaribah testified. While 
threading a narrow pass between high rocks, in the 
twilight, there was a sudden discharge of musketry 
and some camels dropped dead. The Utaybah, 
hidden behind the rocks crowning the pass, poured 
down an irregular fire upon the pilgrims, who were 
panic-stricken and fell into great disorder. The 
Wahabees, however, commenced scaling the rocks, 



PILGBIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 77 

and very soon drove the robbers from their ambush. 
The caravan then hurried forward in great disorder, 
leaving the dead and severely wounded lying on the 
ground. 

"At the beginning of the skirmish," says Burton, 
" I had primed my pistols, and sat with them ready 
for use. But soon seeing that there was nothing to 
be done, and, wishing to make an impression, — no- 
where does Bobadil now " go down " but in the 
East, — I called aloud for my supper. Shekh Nur, 
exanimate with fear, could not move. The boy 
Mohammed ejaculated only an " Oh, sir ! " and the 
people around exclaimed in disgust, " By Allah ! he 
eats ! " Shekh Abdullah, the Meccan, being a man 
of spirit, was amused by the spectacle. " Are these 
Affghan manners, Effendim ? " he inquired from the 
iShugduf behind me. " Yes," I replied aloud, " in 
my country we always dine before an attack of 
robbers, because that gentry is in the habit of send- 
ing men to bed supperless." The Shekh laughed 
aloud, but those around him looked offended." 

The morning after this adventure, the pilgrims 
reached the Wady Laymun, or Valley of Limes, a 
beautiful region of gardens and orchards, only 24 
miles from Mecca. Here they halted four hours to 
rest, and enjoy the fruits and fresh water ; then the 
line of march was resumed towards the Holy City. 
In the afternoon, the range of Jebel Kora, in the 
southeast, became visible, and as evening ap- 
proached all eyes were strained, but in vain, for a 
sight of Mecca. Night came down, and the pil- 
grims moved slowly onward in the darkness. An 



78 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

hour after midnight, Burton was roused by a gen- 
eral excitement in the caravan. " Mecca ! Mecca ! " 
cried some voices ; " The Sanctuary, the Sanc- 
tuary ! " exclaimed others, and all burst into loud 
cries of " Labeyh ! " not unfrequently broken by 
sobs. Looking out from his litter, the traveller saw 
by the light of the southern stars, the dim outlines 
of a large city. They were passing over the last 
rocky ridge, by an artificial cut. The winding path 
was flanked on both sides by high watch-towers ; a 
short distance further, they entered the northern 
suburb. 

The Meccan boy Mohammed, who had been Bur- 
ton's companion during the pilgrimage, conducted 
the latter to his mother's house, where he remained 
during his stay. A meal of vermicelli and sugar 
was prepared on their arrival in the night, and after 
an hour or two of sleep they rose at dawn, in order 
to perform the ceremonies of arrival. After having 
bathed, they walked in their pilgrim garb to the 
Beit Allah, or " House of God." 

" There," says Burton, " there at last it lay, the 
bourne of my long and weary pilgrimage, realizing 
the plans and hopes of many and many a year. 
The mirage medium of fancy invested the huge cata- 
falque and its gloomy pall with peculiar charms. 
There were no giant fragments of hoar antiquity as 
in Egypt, no remains of graceful and harmonious 
beauty as in Greece and Italy, no barbaric gorgeous- 
ness as in the buildings of India ; yet the view was 
strange, unique, and how few have looked upon the 
celebrated shrine ! I may truly say that, of all the 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 79 

worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain, or 
who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none 
felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the 
Hadji from the far north. It was as if the poetical 
legends of the Arab spoke truth, and that the waving 
wings of angels, not the sweet breeze of morning, 
were agitating and swelling the black covering of 
the shrine. But, to confess humbling truth, theirs 
was the high feeling of religious enthusiasm, mine 
was the ecstasy of gratified pride." 

Burton's description of the Beit Allah and the 
Kaaba, is more minute and careful than that of 
Burckhardt, but does not differ from it in any im- 
portant particular. Neither is it necessary to quote 
his account of the ceremonies to be performed by 
each individual pilgrim, with all their mechanical 
prostrations and repetitions. His account of the 
visit to the famous Black Stone, however, is both 
curious and amusing : " For a long time I stood 
looking in despair at the swarming crowd of Be- 
douin and other pilgrims that besieged it. But th® 
boy Mohammed was equal to the occasion. During 
our circuit he had displayed a fiery zeal against 
heresy and schism, by foull}^ abusing every Persian 
in his path ; and the inopportune introduction of 
hard words into his prayers made the latter a 
strange patchwork. He might, for instance, be re- 
peating * and I take refuge with thee from ignominy 
in this world,' when, ' O thou rejected one, son of 
the rejected ! " would be the interpolation ad- 
dressed to some long-bearded Khorasani, — «" and in 
that to come — O hog and brother of a hoggess ! " 



80 • TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

And SO he continued till I wondered that no one 
dared to turn and rend him. After vainly address- 
ing the pilgrims, of whom nothing could be seen 
but a mosaic of occiputs and shoulder-blades, the 
boy Mohammed collected about half a dozen stal- 
wart Meccans, with whose assistance, by sheer 
strength, we wedged our way into the thin and 
light-legged crowd. The Bedouins turned round 
upon us like wildcats, but they had no daggers. 
The season being autumn, they had not swelled 
themselves with milk for six months ; and they had 
become such living mummies, that I could have 
managed single-handed half a dozen of them. 
After thus reaching the stone, despite popular indig- 
nation, testified by impatient shouts, we monopo- 
lized the use of it for at least ten minutes. Whilst 
kissing it and rubbing hands and forehead upon it 
I narrowly observed it, and came away persuaded 
that it is a big aeroHte." 

On the 12th of September, the pilgrims set out 
for Mount Arafat. Three miles from Mecca there 
is a large village called Muna, noted for three 
standing miracles — the pebbles, there thrown at the 
Devil, return by angelic agency to whence they 
came ; during the three days of drying meat rapa- 
cious birds and beasts cannot prey there, and flies 
do not settle upon the articles of food exposed in 
the bazaars. Beyond the place there is a mosque 
called El Khayf, where, according to some tradi- 
tions, Adam is buried, his head being at one end of 
the long wall and his feet at the other, while the 
the dome is built over his navel. 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. gl 

"Arafat," says Burton, " is about a six hours' 
march, or twelve miles, on the Taif road, due east 
of Mecca. We arrived there in a shorter time, 
but our weary camels, during the last third of the 
way, frequently threw themselves upon the ground. 
Human beings suffered more. Between Muna and 
Arafat I saw no less than five men fall down and 
die upon the highway ; exhausted and moribund, 
they had dragged themselves out to give up the 
ghost where it departs to instant beatitude. The 
spectacle showed how easy it is to die in these lati- 
tudes ; each man suddenly staggered, fell as if shot, 
and, after a brief convulsion, lay still as marble. 
The corpses w^ere carefully taken up, and carelessly 
buried that same evening, in a vacant space amongst 
the crowds encamped upon the Arafat plain. 

" Nothing can be more picturesque than the view 
the mountain affords of the blue peaks behind, and 
the vast encampment scattered over the barren 
yellow plain below. On the north lay the regularly 
pitched camp of the guards that defend the unarmed 
pilgrims. To the eastward was the Scherif s encamp- 
ment with the bright mahmals and the gilt knobs of 
the grander pavilions ; whilst, on the southern and 
western sides, the tents of the vulgar crowded the 
ground, disposed in do wars, or circles, for penning 
cattle. After many calculations, I estimated the 
number to be not less that 50,000, of all ages and 
sexes." 

After the sermon on Arafat, which Burton de- 
scribes in the same manner as Burckhardt, the for- 
mer gives an account of the subsequent ceremony of 



82 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

" stoning the Great Devil " near the village of 
Muna : " The Shay tan el-Kabir " is a dwarf but- 
tress of rude masonry, about eight feet high by two 
and a half broad, placed against a rough wall of 
stones, at the Meccan entrance to Muna. As the 
ceremony of " Kamy," or Lapidation, must be per- 
formed on the first day by all pilgrims between sun- 
rise and sunset, and as the fiend was malicious 
enough to appear in a rugged pass, the crowd makes 
the place dangerous. On one side of the road, 
which is not forty feet broad, stood a row of shops 
belonging principally to barbers. On the other side 
is the rugged wall of the pillar, with a chevaux de 
frise of Bedouins and naked boys. The narrow 
space was crowded with pilgrims, all struggling like 
drowning men to approach as near as possible to the 
Devil ; — it would have been easy to run over the 
heads of the mass. Amongst them were horsemen 
with rearing chargers. Bedouins on \\^ild camels, 
and grandees on mules and asses, with outrunners, 
were breaking a way by assault and battery. I had 
read Ali Bey's self-felicitations upon escaping this 
place with " only two wounds in the left leg," and 
had duly provided myself with a hidden dagger. 
The precaution was not useless. Scarcely had my 
donkey entered the crowd than he was overthrown 
by a dromedary, and I found myself under the 
stamping and roaring beast's stomach. By a judi- 
cious use of the knife, I avoided being trampled 
upon, and lost no time in escaping from a place so 
ignobly dangerous. Finding an opening at last, we 
approached within about five cubits of the place, 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 83 

and holding each stone between the thumb and fore- 
finger of the ring hand, cast it at the pillar, exclaim- 
ing : ' In the name of Allah, and Allah is Almighty, 
I do this in hatred of the Fiend and to his shame.' 
The seven stones being duly thrown, we retired, and 
entering the barber's booth, took our places upon one 
of the earthern benches around it. This was the 
time to remove the ihram or pilgrim's garb, and to 
return to ihlal, the normal state of El Islam. The 
barber shaved our heads, and, after trimming our 
beards and cutting our nails, made us repeat these 
words : " I purpose loosening my ihram according 
to the practice of the Prophet, whom may Allah 
bless and preserve ! O Allah, make unto me in every 
hair, a light, a purity, and a generous reward ! In 
the name of Allah, and Allah is Almighty ! " At 
the conclusion of his labor the barber politely ad- 
dressed to us a " Naiman " — Pleasure to you ! To 
which we as ceremoniously replied, " Allah give 
thee pleasure ! " 

We will conclude these quotations from Burton's 
narrative with his description of a sermon in the 
great mosque of Mecca. "After returning to the 
city from the sacrifice of sheep in the valley of Muna, 
we bathed, and when noon drew nigh we repaired 
to the Haram for the purpose of hearing the ser- 
mon. Descending to the cloisters below the Bab el- 
Ziyadah, I stood wonderstruck by the scene before 
me. The vast quadrangle was crowded with wor- 
shippers sitting in long rows, and everywhere facing 
the central black tower : the showy colors of their 
dresses were not to be surpassed by a garden of the 



84 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

most brilliant flowers, and such diversity of detail 
would probably not be seen massed together in any 
other building upon earth. The women, a dull and 
sombre-looking group, sat apart in their peculiar 
place. The Pasha stood on the roof of Zem Zem, 
surrounded by guards in Nizam uniform. Where 
the principal ulema stationed themselves the crowd 
was thicker ; and in the more auspicious spots naught 
was to be seen but a pavement of heads and shouh 
ders. Nothing seemed to move but a few dervishes, 
who, censer in hand, sidled through the rows and 
received the unsolicited alms of the faithful. Appa- 
rently in the midst, and raised above the crowd by 
the tall, pointed pulpit, whose gilt spire flamed in 
the sun, sat the preacher, an old man with snowy 
beard. The style of Lead-dress cslled " taylasan^* 
covered his turban, which was white as his robes, 
and a short staff supported his left hand. Presently 
he arose, took thestaff in his right hand, pronounced 
a few inaudible words, and sat down again on one of 
the lower steps, whilst a Muezzin, at the foot of the 
pulpit, recited the call to sermon. Then the old man 
stood up and began to preach. As the majestic figure 
began to exert itself there was a deep silence. Pres- 
ently a general " Amin " was intoned by the crowd 
at the conclusion of some long sentence. And at last, 
towards the end of the sermon, every third or fourth 
word was followed by the simultaneous rise and fall 
of thousands of voices. 

" I have seen the religious ceremonies of many 
lands, but never — nowhere — aught so solemn, so im- 
pressive as this spectacle." 




COSTUME OF PILGRIMS TO MECCA. 



PILGRIMAGE TO MEDINA AND MECCA. 85 

Finding that it was impossible for him to under- 
take the journey across Central Arabia, both for 
lack of time and the menacing attitude of the Desert 
tribes, Burton left Mecca for Djidda, at the end of 
September. Starting in the afternoon, the chance 
caravan of returning pilgrims reached, about mid- 
night, a mass of huts called El Hadda, which is the 
usual half- way halting place. It is maintained solely 
for the purpose of supplying travellers with coffee 
and water. Here the country slopes gradually to- 
wards the sea, the hills recede, and every feature de- 
notes departure from the upland plateau of Mecca. 
After reaching here, and at some solitary coffee- 
houses further on the way, the pilgrims reached Djid- 
da safely at eight in the morning. 

From this place Burton took passage on a steamer 
for Suez, and returned to Cairo, but without the 
Meccan boy, Mohammed, who began to have a sus- 
picion of his true character, after seeing him in com- 
pany with some English officers, and who left him 
before embarking. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PALGEAVE's TBAVELS in central ARABIA I FROM PAL- 
ESTINE TO THE DJOWF. 

MR. WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE, son 
of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian, per- 
formed, in 1862-3, a journey in Arabia, which gives 
us the first clear and full account of the interior 
of the country, including the great Wahabee state 
of Nedjed, the early home of AraJDian poetry and 
also of the famous Arabian breed of horses. Mr. 
Palgrave's qualifications for the undertaking were 
in some respects superior to those of either Burck- 
hardt or Burton. To a high degree of general 
culture and a vigorous and picturesque style as a 
writer, he added a knowledge of the Arabic lan- 
guage and literature equal to that of any native 
scholar : he spoke the language as well as his 
mother tongue; his features w^ere sufficiently Ori- 
ental to disarm suspicion, and years of residence 
in the East had rendered him entirely familiar with 
the habits of the people and even with all those mi- 
nor forms of etiquette which are so rarely acquired 
by a stranger. His narrative, therefore, is as admir- 
able and satisfactory in its character as the fields he 
traversed were new and fascinating. It throws, in- 
deed, so much indirect light upon the experiences of 
all his predecessors, and is so much richer in its 



PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS. 



87 



illustrations of Arab life and character, that no brief 
summary of its contents can do justice to its impor- 
tance. 

Of the first stage of the journey, from Gaza on the 
Mediterranean to the little town of Ma'an, which 
lies on the route of the caravans from Damascus to 




■WILLIAM GIFFOBD PALGKAVE. 

Mecca, a short distance to the northeast of Petra, 
and thus nearly on the boundary between the coun- 
try of Moab and Edom, Palgrave gives us no account. 
Yet, in spite of the comparatively brief distance 
traversed, it must have been both laborious and dan- 
gerous. His narrative commences as follows, at the 
moment of his departure from Ma'an : 



g8 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

" Once for all let us attempt to acquire a fairly 
correct and comprehensive knowledge of the Arabi- 
an Peninsula. With its coasts we are already in 
great measure acquainted ; several of its maritime 
provinces have been, if not thoroughly, at least suf- 
ficiently, explored ; Yemen and* Hejaz, Mecca and 
Medina, are no longer mysteries to us, nor are we 
w^hoUy without information on the districts of Ha- 
dramaut and Oman. But of the interior of the vast 
region, of its plains and mountains, its tribes and 
cities, of its governments and institutions, of its in- 
habitants, their ways and customs, of their social 
condition, how far advanced in civilization or sunk 
in barbarism, what do we as yet really know, save 
from accounts necessarily wanting in fullness and 
precision? It is time to fill up this blank in the 
map of Asia, and this, at whatever risks, we will now 
endeavor; either the land before us shall be our 
tomb, or we will traverse it in its fullest breadth, 
and know what it contains from shore to shore. 
Vestigia nulla retrorsum.'^ 

" Such were my thoughts, and such, more or less, 
I should suppose, those of my companion, when we 
found ourselves at fall of night without the eastern 
gate of Ma'an, while the Arabs, our guides and fel- 
low-travellers, filled their water-skins from a gush- 
ing source hard by the town walls, and adjusted the 
saddles and the burdens of their camels, in prepara- 
tion for the long journey that lay before us and 
them. It was the evening of the 16th of June, 1862 ; 
the largest stars were already visible in the deep blue 
depths of a cloudless sky, while the crescent moon, 



FALGBAVE'S TRAVELS. 89 

high to the west, shone as she shines in those heav- 
ens, and promised us assistance for some hours of 
our night march. We were soon mounted on our 
meagre long-necked beasts, * as if,' according to the 
expression of an Arab poet, * we and our men were at 
mast-heads,' and now we set our faces to the east. 
Behind us lay, in a mass of dark outline, the walls 
and castle of Ma'an, its houses and gardens, and far- 
ther back in the distance the high and barren range 
of the Sheraa' mountains, merging into the coast 
chain of Hejaz. Before and around us extended a 
wide and level plain, blackened over with countless 
pebbles of basalt and flint, except where the moon- 
beams gleamed white on little intervening patches of 
clear sand, or on yellowish streaks of withered grass, 
the scanty product of the winter rains, and dried now 
into hay. Over all a deep silence, which even our 
Arab companions seemed fearf al of breaking ; when 
they spoke it was in a half whisper and in a few 
words, while the noiseless tread of our camels sped 
stealthily but rapidly through the gloom, without dis- 
turbing its stillness. 

" Some precaution was not indeed wholly out of 
place, for that stage of the journey on which we were 
now entering was anything but safe. We were 
bound for the Djowf, the nearest inhabited district 
of Central Arabia, its outlying station, in fact. Now 
the intervening tract offered for the most part the 
double danger of robbers and of thirst, of marauding 
bands and of the summer season. The distance it- 
self to be traversed was near two hundred miles in a 



90 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

straight line, and unavoidable circumstances were 
likely to render it much longer." 

Palgrave's companion was a native Syrian, named 
Barakat, — a man on whom he could fully rely. 
Hardy, young, and enterprising, he belonged to a 
locality whose inhabitants are accustomed to danger. 
But the Bedouins who furnished the camels, and 
acted as guides, were of another class. They were 
three in number, Salim, their leader, a member of a 
powerful family of the Howeytat tribe, but outlawed 
for pillage and murder, and two men. Alee and 
Djordee, utter barbarians in appearance no less 
than in character. Even Salim advised the trav- 
ellers to avoid all familiarities with the latter. 

" Myself and my companion," says Palgrave, 
" were dressed like ordinary class travellers of inner 
Syria ; an equipment in which we had already made 
our way from Gaza on the sea-coast to Ma'an with- 
out much remark or unseasonable questioning from 
those whom we fell in with, while we traversed a 
country so often described already by Pococke, 
Laborde, and downwards, under the name of Arabia 
Petrse, that it would be superfluous for me to enter 
into any new account of it in the present work. 
Our dress then consisted partly of a long stout 
blouse of Egyptian hemp, under which, unlike our 
Bedouin fellow-travellers, we indulged in the luxury 
of the loose cotton drawers common in the East, 
while our colored head-kerchiefs, though simple 
enough, were girt by 'akkals or head-bands of some 
pretension to elegance ; the loose-red leather boots 
of the country completed our toilet. 



PALGBAVE'S TRAVELS. 91 

*' But in the large travelling-sacks at our camels' 
sides were contained suits of a more elegant ap- 
pearance, carefully concealed from Bedouin gaze, 
but destined for appearance when we should reach 
better inhabited and more civilized districts. This 
reserve toilet numbered articles like the following : 
colored overdresses, the Syrian combaz, handker- 
chiefs whose silk stripes relieved the plebeian cotton, 
and girdles of good material and tasteful coloring ; 
such clothes being absolutely requisite to maintain 
our assumed character. Mine was that of a native 
travelling doctor, a quack if you will ; and accord- 
ingly a tolerable dress was indispensable for the 
credit of my medical practice. My comrade, who in 
a general way passed for my brother-in-law, ap- 
peared sometimes as a retail merchant, such as not 
unfrequently visit these countries, and sometimes as 
pupil or associate in my assumed profession. 

" Our pharmacopoeia consisted of a few but well 
selected and efficacious drugs, inclosed in small 
tight-fitting tin boxes, stowed away for the present in 
the ample recesses of our travelling bags ; about fifty 
of these little cases contained wherewithal to kill or 
cure half the sick men of Arabia. Medicines of a 
liquid form had been as much as possible omitted, 
not only from the difficulty of ensuring them a safe 
transport amid so rough a mode of journeying, but 
also on account of the rapid evaporation unavoid- 
able in this dry and burning climate. In fact two 
or three small bottles, whose contents had seemed 
to me of absolute necessity, soon retained nothing 
save their labels to indicate what they had held, in 



92 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

spite of air-tight stoppers and double coverings. I 
record this, because the hint may be useful to any 
one who should be inclined to embark in similar 
guise on the same adventures. 

" Some other objects requisite in medical practice, 
two or three European books for my own private 
use, and kept carefully secret from Arab curiosity, 
with a couple of Esculapian treatises in good Arabic, 
intended for professional ostentation, completed this 
part of our fitting-out. But besides these, an ample 
provision of cloth handkerchiefs, glass necklaces, 
pipe-bowls, and the like, for sale in whatever locali- 
ties might not offer sufficient facility for the healing 
art, filled up our saddle-bags well nigh to bursting. 
Last, but not least, two large sacks of coffee, the 
sheet-anchor and main hope of our commerce, 
formed alone a sufficient load for a vigorous camel." 

The first days of travel were a monotony of heat 
and desolation. The deceptive lakes of the mirage 
covered the tawny plain, and every dark basaltic 
block, lying here and there at random, was magni- 
fied into a mountain in the heated atmosphere. 
" Dreary land of death, in which even the face of 
an enemy were almost a relief amid such utter soli- 
tude. But for five whole days the little dried-up 
lizard of the plain, that looks as if he had never a 
drop of moisture in his ugly body, and the jerboaa,' 
or field-rat of Arabia, were the only living creatures 
to console our view. 

" It was a march during which we might have 
almost repented of our enterprise, had such a sen- 
timent been any longer possible or availing. Day 



PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS. 93 

after day found us urging our camels to their utmost 
pace, for fifteen or sixteen hours together out of the 
twenty-four, under a well-nigh vertical sun, which 
the Ethiopians of Herodotus might reasonably be 
excused for cursing, with nothing either in the land- 
scape around or in the companions of our way to 
relieve for a moment the eye or the mind. Then an 
insufficient halt for rest or sleep, at most of two or 
three hours, soon interrupted by the oft-repeated 
admonition, * if we linger here we all die of thirst,' 
sounding in our ears ; and then to remount our 
jaded beasts and push them on through the dark 
night, amid the constant probability of attack and 
plunder from roving marauders. For myself, I was, 
to mend matters, under the depressing influence of 
a tertian fever contracted at Ma' an, and what be- 
tween weariness and low spirits, began to imagine 
seriously that no waters remained before us except 
the waters of death for us and of oblivion for our 
friends. The days wore by like a delirious dream, 
till we were often almost unconscious of the ground 
we travelled over and of the journey on which we 
were engaged. One only herb appeared at our feet 
to give some appearance of variety and life ; it was 
the bitter and poisonous colocynth of the desert. 

" Our order of road was this. Long before dawn 
we were on our way, and paced it till the sun, hav- 
ing attained about half-way between the horizon 
and the zenith, assigned the moment of alighting for 
our morning meal. This our Bedouins always took 
good care should be in some hollow or low ground, 
for concealment's sake ; in every other respect we 



94 TBAVELS IN ABABIA. 

had ample liberty of choice, for one patch of black 
pebbles with a little sand and withered grass be- 
tween was just like another ; shade or shelter, or 
anything like them, was wholly out of the question 
in such " nakedness of the land." We then alighted, 
and my companion and myself would pile up the 
baggage into a sort of wall, to afford a half-screen 
from the scurching sun-rays, and here recline awhile. 
Next came the culinary preparations, in perfect ac- 
cordance with our provisions, which were simple 
enough ; namely, a bag of coarse flour mixed with 
salt, and a few dried dates ; there was no third item 
on the bill of fare. We now took a few handfuls 
of flour, and one of the Bedouins kneaded it with 
his unwashed hands or dirty bit of leather, pouring 
over it a little of the dingy water contained in the 
skins, and then patted out this exquisite paste into 
a large round cake, about an inch thick, and five or 
six inches across. Meanwhile another had lighted a 
fire of dry grass, colocynth roois, and dried camel's 
dung, till he had prepared a bed of glowing embers ; 
among these the cake was now cast, and immedi- 
ately covered up with hot ashes, and so left for a 
few minutes, then taken out, turned, and covered 
again, till at last half-kneaded, half-raw, half-roasted, 
and burnt all round, it was taken out to be broken 
up between the hungry band, and eaten scalding 
hot, before it should cool into an indescribable 
leathery substance, capable of defying the keenest 
appetite. A draught of dingy water was its sole but 
suitable accompaniment. 

" The meal ended, we had again without loss of 



PALQRAVE'8 TRAVELS. 95 

time to resume our way from mirage to mirage, till 
* slowly flaming over all, from heat to heat, the day 
decreased,' and about an hour before sunset we 
would stagger off our camels as best we might, to 
prepare an evening feast of precisely the same de- 
scription as that of the forenoon, or more often, for 
fear lest the smoke of our fire should give notice 
to some distant rover, to content ourselves with dry 
dates, and half an hour's rest on the sand. At last 
our dates, like Esop's bread-sack, or that of Beyhas, 
his Arab prototype, came to an end ; and then our 
supper was a soldier's one ; what that is my military 
friends will know ; but grit and pebbles excepted, 
there was no bed in our case. After which, to re- 
mount, and travel on by moon or starlight, till a 
little before midnight we would like down for just 
enough sleep to tantalize, not refresh." 

" It was now the 22d of June, and the fifth day 
since our departure from the wells of Wokba. The 
water in the skins had httle more to offer to our 
thirst than muddy dregs, and as yet no sign ap- 
peared of a fresh supply. At last about noon wo 
drew near some hillocks of loose gravel and sand- 
stone a little on our right ; our Bedouins conversed 
together awhile, and then turned their course and 
ours in that direction. " Hold fast on your camels, 
for they are going to be startled and jump about," 
said Salim to us. Why the camels should be startled 
I could not understand ; when on crossing the 
mounds just mentioned, we suddenly came on five 
or six black tents, of the very poorest description, 
pitched near some wells excavated in the gravelly 



96 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

hollow below. The reason of Salim's precautionary 
hint now became evident, for our silly beasts started 
at first sight of the tents, as though they had never 
seen the like before, and then scampered about, 
bounding friskily here and there, till what between 
their jolting (for a camel's run much resembles that 
of a cow) and our own laughing, we could hardly 
keep on their backs. However, thirst soon prevailed 
over timidit}^, and they left off their pranks to ap- 
proach the well's edge, and sniff at the water be- 
low." 

The inhabitants of the tents showed the ordinary 
curiosity, but Avere not unfriendly, and the little 
caravan rested there for the remainder of the day. 
A further journey of two days over a region of 
sand-hills, with an occasional well, still intervened 
before they could reach Wady Sirhan — a long valley, 
running directly to the populated region of the 
Djouf. While passing over this intermediate re- 
gion, an incident occurred which had well nigh put 
a premature end to the travels and the travellers to- 
gether. " My readers, no less than myself," says 
Palgrave, " must have heard or read many a story 
of the simoom, or deadly wind of the desert, but 
for me I had never yet met it in full force ; and its 
modified form, or shelook, to use the Arab phrase, 
that is, the sirocco of the Syrian waste, though dis- 
agreeable enough, can hardly ever be termed dan- 
gerous. Hence I had been almost inclined to set 
down the tales told of the strange phenomena and 
fatal effects of this ' poisoned gale,' in the same ca- 
tegory with the moving pillars of sand, recorded in 



PALGBAVE'8 TRAVELS. 97 

many works of higher historical pretensions than 
" Thalaba." At those perambulatory columns and 
sand-smothered caravans the Bedouins, whenever I 
interrogated them on the subject, laughed outright, 
and declared that beyond an occasional dust storm, 
similar to those which any one who has passed a 
summer in Scinde can hardly fail to have experi- 
enced, nothing of the romantic kind just alluded to 
occurred in Arabia. But when questioned about the 
simoom, they always treated it as a much more 
serious matter, and such in real earnest we now 
found it. 

" It was about noon, the noon of a summer sol- 
stice in the unclouded Arabian sky over a scorched 
desert, when abrupt and burning gusts of wind be- 
gan to blow by fits from the south, while the op- 
pressiveness of the air increased every moment, 
till my companion and myself mutually asked each 
other what this could mean, and what was to be its 
result. We ti>rned to inquire of Salim, but he had 
already wrapped up his face in his mantle, and, 
bowed down and crouching on the neck of his ca- 
mel, replied not a word. His comrades, the two 
Sherarat Bedouins, had adopted a similar position, 
and were equally silent. At last, after repeated 
interrogations, Salim, instead of replying directly 
to our questioning, pointed to a small black tent, 
providentially at no great distance in front, and 
said : ' try to reach that, if we can get there we are 
saved.' He added : ' take care that your camels do 
not stop and lie down ;' and then, giving his own 
several vigorous blows, relapsed into muffled silence. 



93 TRAVELS IN ABASIA. 

" We looked anxiously towards the tent ; it was 
yet a hundred yards off, or more. Meanwhile the 
gusts grew hotter and more violent, and it was only 
by repeated efforts that we could urge our beasts 
forward. The horizon rapidly darkened to a deep 
violet hue, and seemed to draw in like a curtain on 
every side, while at the same time a stifling blast, 
as though from some enormous oven opening right 
on our path, blew steadily under the gloom ; our 
camels too, began, in spite of all we could do, to 
turn round and round and bend their knees, prepar- 
ing to lie down. The simoom was fairly upon us. 

" Of course we had followed our Arabs' example 
by muffling our faces, and now with blows and 
kicks we forced the staggering animals onwards to 
the only asylum within reach. So dark was the 
atmosphere, and so burning the hea^, that it 
seemed that hell had risen from the earth, or de- 
scended from above. But we were yet in time, and 
at the moment when the worst of the concentrated 
poison-blast was coming around, we were already 
prostrate, one and all, within the tent, with our 
heads well wrapped up, almost suffocated, indeed, 
but safe ; while our camels lay without like dead, 
their long necks stretched out on the sand, await- 
ing the passing of the gale. 

" On our first arrival the tent contained a solitary 
Eedouin woman^ whose husband was away with his 
camels in the Wady Sirhan. When she saw five 
handsome men like us, rush thus suddenly into her 
dwelling without a word of leave or salutation, she 
very properly set up a scream to the tune of the 



PALGBAVE'S TRAVELS. 99 

four crown pleas, murder, arson, robbery, and I 
know not what else. Salim hastened to reassure 
her by calling out, ' friends,' and without more 
words threw himself flat on the ground. All fol- 
lowed his example in silence. 

" We remained thus for about ten minutes, dur- 
ing which a still heat like that of red-hot iron 
slowly passing over us was alone to be felt. Then 
the tent walls began again to flap in the returning 
gusts, and announced that the worst of the simoom 
had gone by. We got up, half dead with exhaus- 
tion, and unmuffled our faces. My comrades ap- 
peared more like corpses than living men, and so, I 
suppose, did I. However, I could not forbear, in 
spite of warnings, to step out and look at the cam- 
els ; they were still lying flat as though they had 
been shot. The air was yet darkish, but before 
long it brightened up to its usual dazzling clear- 
ness. During the whole time that the simoom last- 
ed, the atmosphere was entirely free from sand or 
dust, so that I hardly know how to account for its 
singular obscurity." 

" Late in the evening we continued our w^ay, and 
next day early entered Wady Sirhan, where the 
character of our journey underwent a considerable 
modification. For the northerly Arabian Desert, 
which we are now traversing, offers, in spite of all 
its dreariness, some spots of comparatively better 
cast, where water is less scanty and vegetation less 
niggard. These spots are the favorite resorts of 
Bedouins, and serve, too, to direct the ordinary 
routes of whatever travellers, trade led or from 



100 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

other motives, may venture on this wilderness. 
These oases, if indeed they deserve the name, are 
formed by a slight depression in the surrounding 
desert surface, and take at times the form of a long 
valley, or of an oblong patch, where rock and peb- 
ble give place to a light soil more or less intermixed 
with sand, and concealing under its surface a toler- 
able supply of moisture at no great distance below 
ground. Here, in consequence, bushes and herbs 
spring up, and grass, if not greeu all the year 
round, is at least of somewhat longer duration than 
elsewhere ; certain fruit-bearing plants of a nature 
to suffice for meagre Bedouin existence, grow here 
spontaneously ; in a word, man and beast find not 
exactly comfortable accommodation, but the abso- 
lutely needful supply. Such a spot is Wady Sir- 
han, literally, 'the Valley of the Wolf.'" 

They entered Wady Sirhan on the 21st of June. 
*' Passing tent after tent, and leaving behind us ma- 
ny a tattered Bedouin and grazing camel, Salim at 
last indicated to us a group of habitations, two or 
three of which seemed of somewhat more ample di- 
mensions than the rest, and informed us that our 
supper that night (for the afternoon was already on 
the decline) would be at the cost of these dwellings. 
* Ajaweed,' i. e., ' generous fellows,' he subjoined, to 
encourage us by the prospect of a handsome recep- 
tion. Of course we could only defer to his better 
judgment ; and in a few minutes were alongside of 
the black goat's hair coverings where lodged our in- 
tended hosts. 

" The chief or chieflet, for such he was, came out, 



PALGBAVWS TBAVEL8. 101 

and intercliatiged a few words of masonic laconism 
with Salim. The latter then came up to us, where 
we remained halted in expectation, led our camels 
to a little distance from the tents, made them kneel 
down, helped us to disburden them, and while we 
installed ourselves on a sandy slope opposite to the 
abodes of the tribe, recommended us to keep a sharp 
lookout after our baggage, since there might be 
pickers and stealers among our hosts, for all ' Aja- 
weed ' as they were. Disagreeable neAvs ; for ' Aja- 
weed ' in an Arab mouth corresponds the nearest 
possible to our English ' gentlemen.' Now, if the 
gentlemen were thieves, what must the blackguards 
be ? We put a good face on it, and then seated our- 
selves in dignified gravity on the sand awaiting the 
further results of our guide's negotiations. 

" For some time we remained undisturbed, though 
not unnoticed ; a group of Arabs had collected round 
our companions at the tent door, and were engaged 
in getting from them all possible information, espe- 
cially about us and our baggage, which last was an 
object of much curiosity, not to say cupidity. Next 
came our turn. The chief, his family, (women ex- 
cepted,) his intimate followers, and some twenty 
others, young and old, boys and men, came up, and 
after a brief salutation, Bedouinwise, seated them- 
selves in a semicircle before us. Every man held a 
short crooked stick for camel-driving in his hand, to 
gesticulate with when speaking, or to play with in 
the intervals of conversation, while the younger mem- 
bers of society, less prompt in discourse, politely 
employed their leisure in staring at us, or in picking 



102 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

up dried pellets of dirt from the sand and tossing 
them about." 

" ' What are you ? what is your business ? ' so 
runs the ordinary and unprefaced opening of the dis- 
course. To which we answer, ' Physicians from Da- 
mascus, and our business is whatsoever God may 
put in our way.' The next question will be about 
the baggage ; some one pokes it with a stick, to 
draw attention to it, and says, * What is this ? have 
you any little object to sell us ? '" 

We fight shy of selling : to open out our wares 
and chattels in full air, on the sand, and amid a 
crowd whose appearance and circumstances ofifer 
but a poor guarantee for the exact observance of the 
eighth commandment, would be hardly prudent or 
worth our while. After several fruitless trials they 
desist from their request. Another, who is troubled 
by some bodily infirmity, for which all the united 
faculties of London and Paris might prescribe in 
vain, a withered hand, for instance, or stone-blind 
of an eye, asks for medicine, which no sooner ap- 
plied shall, in his expectation, suddenly restore him 
to perfect health and corporal integrity. But I had 
been already forewarned that to doctor a Bedouin, 
even under the most favorable circumstances, or a 
camel, is pretty much the same thing, and with 
about an equal chance of success or advantage. I 
politely decline. He insists ; I turn him off with a 
joke. 

" So you laugh at us, you inhabitants of towns. 
We are Bedouins, we do not know your customs," 
replies he, in a whining tone ; while the boys grin 



PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS. 103 

unconscionably at the discomfiture of their tribes- 
man. 

" ' Ya woleyd,' or young fellow, (for so they style 
every human male from eight to eighty without dis- 
tinction,) ' will you not fill my pipe ?' says one, who 
has observed that mine was not idle, and who, though 
well provided with a good stock of dry tobacco tied 
up in a rag at his greasy waist-belt, thinks the mo- 
ment a fair opportunity for a little begging, since 
neither medicine nor merchandise is to be had. 

" But Salim, seated amid the circle, makes me a 
sign not to comply. Accordingly I evade the de- 
mand. However, my petitioner goes on begging, 
and is imitated by two or three others, each of whom 
thrusts forward (a true Irish hint) a bit of marrow- 
bone with a hole drilled in one side to act for a pipe, 
or a porous stone, not uncommon throughout the 
desert, clumsily fashioned into a smoking apparatus, 
a sort of primitive meerschaum. 

" As they grow rude, I pretend to become angry, 
thus to cut the matter short. ' We are your guests, 
O you Bedouins ; are you not ashamed to beg of us ?' 
* Never mind, excuse us ; those are ignorant fellows, 
ill-bred clowns,' etc., interposes one close by the 
chief's side ; and whose dress is in somewhat better 
condition than that of the other half and three-quar- 
ter naked individuals who complete the assembly. 

" * Will you not people the pipe for your little bro- 
ther !' subjoins the chief himself, producing an empty 
one with a modest air. Bedouin language, like that 
of most Orientals, abounds with not ungraceful im- 
agery, and accordingly ' people ' here means * fill.' 



104 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. ' 

Salim gives me a wink of compliance ; I take out a 
handful of tobacco, and put it on his long shirt- 
sleeve, which he knots over it, and looks uncommon- 
ly well pleased. At any rate they are easily satisfied, 
these Bedouins. 

" The night air in these wilds is life and health it- 
self. We sleep soundly, unharassed by the antici- 
pation of an early summons to march next morning, 
for both men and beasts have alike need of a full 
day's repose. When the sun has risen we are invited 
to enter the chief's tent and to bring our baggage 
under its shelter. A main object of our entertainer, 
in proposing this move, is to try whether he cannot 
render our visit someway profitable to himself, by 
present or purchase. Whatever politeness he can 
muster is accordingly brought into play, and a large 
bowl of fresh camel's milk, an excellent beverage, 
now appears on the stage. I leave to chemical ana- 
lysis to decide why this milk will not furnish butter, 
for such is the fact, and content myself with bearing 
witness to its very nutritious and agreeable qualities. 

" The day passes on. About noon our host natu- 
rally enough supposes us hungry, and accordingly a 
new dish is brought in : it looks much like a bowl full 
of coarse red paste, or bran mixed with ochre. This 
is SamJi, a main article of subsistence to the Bedou- 
ins of Northern Arabia. Throughout this part of 
the desert grows a small herbaceous and tufted 
plant, with juicy stalks and a little ovate yellow -tint- 
ed leaf ; the flowers are of a brighter yellow, with 
many stamens and pistils. When the blossoms fall 
off, there remains in place of each a four-leaved cap- 



PALGBAVE'S TRAVELS. 105 

sule about the size of an ordinary pea, and this, 
when ripe, opens to show a mass of minute reddish 
seeds, resembhng grit in feel and appearance, but 
farinaceous in substance. The ripening season is in 
July, when old and young, men and women, all are out 
to collect the unsown and untoiled-for harvest. 

" On the 27th of the month we passed with some 
difficulty a series of abrupt sand-hills that close in 
the direct course of Wady Sirhan. Here, for the first 
time, we saw the ghada, a shrub almost character- 
istic, from its very frequency, of the Arabian Penin- 
sula, and often alluded to by its poets. It is of the 
genus Euphorbia, with a woody stem, often five or 
six feet in height, and innumerable round green 
twigs, very slender and flexible, forming a large 
feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while it 
affords some kind of shelter to the traveller and 
food to his camels. These last are passionately fond 
of ghada, and will continually turn right out of their 
way, in spite of blows and kicks, to crop a mouthful 
of it, and then swing back their long necks into the 
former direction, ready to repeat the same manoeuvre 
at the next bush, as though they had never received 
a beating for their past voracity. 

" I have, while in England, heard and read more 
than once of the ' docile camel.' If ' docile ' means 
stupid, well and good ; in such a case the camel is 
the very model of docility. But if the epithet is 
intended to designate an animal that takes an 
interest in its rider so far as a beast can, that in 
some way understands his intentions or shares them 
in a subordinate fashion, that obeys from a sort of 



106 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

submissive or lialf fellow-feeling with his master, 
like the horse and elephant, then I say that the 
camel is by no means docile, very much the con- 
trary ; he takes no heed of his rider, pays no atten- 
tion whether he be on his back or not, walks straight 
on when once set a-going, merely because he is too 
stupid to turn aside ; and then, should some tempt- 
ing thorn or green branch allure him out of the 
path, continues to walk on in this new direction 
simply because he is too dull to turn back into the 
right road. His only care is to cross as much pas- 
ture as he conveniently can while pacing mechanic- 
ally onwards ; and for effecting this, his long, flex- 
ible neck sets him at great advantage, and a hard 
blow or a downright kick alone has any influence on 
him whether to direct or impel. He will never at- 
tempt to throw you off his back, such a trick being 
far beyond his limited comprehension ; but if you 
fall off, he will never dream of stopping for you, and 
walks on just the same, grazing while he goes, with- 
out knowing or caring an atom what has become of 
you. If turned loose, it is a thousand to one that 
he will never find his way back to his accustomed 
home or pasture, and the first comer who picks him 
up will have no particular shyness to get over ; Jack 
or Tom is all the same to him, and the loss of his 
old master, and of his own kith and kin, gives him 
no regret, and occasions no endeavor to find them 
again." 

On coming in sight of the mountains of Djowf, 
the travellers were obliged to halt for two days at 
an encampment of the Sherarat Arabs, because 



PALGRAVE'S TBAVELS. 107 

Salim could not enter the Djowf with them in per- 
son, on account of a murder which he had com- 
mitted there. He was therefore obhged to procure 
them another guide, capable of conducting them 
safely the remainder of the journey. After much 
search and discussion, Salim ended by finding a 
good-natured, but somewhat timid, individual, who 
undertook their guidance to the Djowf. 

Journeying one whole day and night over an open 
plateau, where they saw a large troop of ostriches, 
they mounted again on the 30th, by the light of 
the morning star, anxious to enter the Djowf before 
the intense heat of noon should come on ; " but we 
had 3^et a long way to go, and our track followed 
endless windings among low hills and stony ledges, 
without any symptom of approach to cultivated re- 
gions. At last the slopes grew greener, and a small 
knot of houses, with traces of tillage close by, ap- 
peared. It was the little village of Djoon, the most 
westerly appendage of Djowf itself. I counted be- 
tween twenty and thirty houses. We next entered 
a long and narrow pass, whose precipitous banks 
shut in the view on either side. Suddenly several 
horsemen appeared on the opposite cliff, and one of 
them, a handsome youth, with long, curling hair, 
well armed and well mounted, (we shall make hii 
more special acquaintance in the next chapter,) 
called out to our guide to halt, and answer in his 
own behalf and ours. This Suleyman did, not with- 
out those marks of timidity in his voice and gesture 
which a Bedouin seldom fails to show on his ap- 
proach to a town, for, when once in it, he is apt to 



108 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

sneak about mucli like a dog who Las just received 
a beating for theft. On his answer, deHvered in a 
most submissive tone, the horsemen held a brief 
consultation, and we then saw two of them turn 
their horses' heads, and gallop off in the direction 
of the Djowf, while our original interlocutor called 
out to Suleyman, ' All right, go on, and fear no- 
thing,' and then disappeared after the rest of the 
band behind the verge of the upland. 

" We had yet to drag on for an hour of tedious 
march ; my camel fairly broke down, and fell again 
and again ; his bad example was followed by the 
coffee-laden beast ; the heat was terrible in these 
gorges, and noon was approaching. At last we 
cleared the pass, but found the onward prospect 
still shut out by an intervening mass of rocks. The 
water in our skins was spent, and we had eaten no- 
thing that morning. When shall we get in sight of 
the Djowf ? or has it flown away from before us ? 
While thus wearily laboring on our way we turned 
a huge pile of crags, and a new and beautiful scene 
burst upon our view. 

"A broad, deep valley, descending ledge after 
ledge till its innermost depths are hidden from sight 
amid far-reaching shelves of reddish rock, below 
everywhere studded with tufts of palm groves and 
clustering fruit trees, in dark green patches, down 
to the furthest end of its windings ; a large brown 
mass of irregular masonry crowning a central hill ; 
beyond, a tall and solitary tower overlooking the 
opposite bank of the hollow, and further down 
small round turrets and flat house-tops, half buried 




Sfe] 



AN ARAB CHIEF. 



PALaBAVE'S TRAVELS. 109 

amid the garden foliage, the whole plunged in a 
perpendicular flood of light and heat ; such was the 
first aspect of the Djowf as we now approached it 
from the west. It was a lovely scene, and seemed 
yet more so to our eyes, weary of the long desolation 
through which we had, with hardly an exception, 
journeyed day after day, since our last farewell 
glimpse of Gaza and Palestine, up to the first 
entrance on inhabited Arabia. ' Like the Paradise 
of eternity, none can enter it till after having pre- 
viously passed over hell-bridge,' says an Arab poet, 
describing some similar locality in Algerian lands. 

" Re-animated by the view, we pushed on our 
jaded beasts, and were already descending the first 
craggy slope of the valley when two horsemen, well 
dressed and fully armed after the fashion of these 
parts, came up toward us from the town, and at 
once saluted us with a loud and hearty ' Marhaba,' 
or * welcome ;' and without further preface they 
added, ' alight and eat,' giving themselves the ex- 
ample of the former by descending briskly from 
their light-limbed horses, and untying a large lea- 
ther bag, full of excellent dates, and a water-skin, 
filled from the running spring ; then, spreading out 
these most opportune refreshments on the rock, and 
adding, * we were sure that you must be hungry and 
thirsty, so we have come ready provided,' they in- 
vited us once more to sit down and begin." 



CHAPTER IX. 

PALGEAVE'S TKAVELS. — KESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF. 

THE elder of the two cavaliers who welcomed 
the travellers proved to be Ghalil-el-Haboob, 
the chief of the most important family of the 
Djowf, former rulers of the place, but now subject 
to Hamood, the vicegerent of Telal, the prince of 
Djebel Shomer, with whom Palgrave afterwards be- 
came acquainted. Ghafil, and also his companion, 
.Dafee, invited the travellers to be his guests, and 
the former, it afterwards appeared, had intended 
that they should reside in his house, hoping to 
make some profit from the merchandise which they 
might have brought. They felt bound, at least, to 
accompany him to his house and partake of coffee, 
before going elsewhere. Palgrave thus describes the 
manner of their reception : 

"The k'hawah was a large, oblong hall, about 
twenty feet in height, fifty in length, and sixteen, or 
thereabouts, in breadth ; the walls were colored in a 
rudely decorative manner, with brown and white 
wash, and sunk here and there into small triangular 
recesses, destined to the reception of books — though 



RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF. HI 

of these Ghafil at least had no over- abundance — 
lamps, and other such like objects. The roof of 
timber, and fiat ; the floor was strewed with fine 
clean sand, and garnished all round alongside of the 
walls with long strips of carpet, upon which cush- 
ions, covered with faded silk, were disposed at suit- 
able intervals. In poorer houses felt rugs usually 
take the place of carpets. In one corner, namely, 
that furthest removed from the door, stood a small 
fireplace, or, to speak more exactly, furnace, form ^d 
of a large, square block of granite, or some other 
hard stone, about twenty inches each way ; this is 
hollowed inwardly into a deep funnel, open above, 
and communicating below with a small horizontal 
tube or pipe-hole, through which the air passes, 
bellows-driven, to the lighted charcoal piled upon a 
grating about half-way inside the cone. In this 
manner the fuel is soon brought to. a white heat, 
and the water in the coffee pot placed upon the fun- 
nel's mouth, is readily brought to boil. The system 
of coffee furnaces is universal in Djowf and Djebel 
Shomer, but in Nedjed itself, and, indeed, in what- 
ever other yet more distant regions of Arabia I 
visited to the south and east, the furnace is re- 
placed by an open fireplace, hollowed in the ground 
floor, with a raised stone border, and dog-irons for 
the fuel, and so forth, like what may be yet seen in 
Spain." 

" We enter. On passing the threshold it is pro- 
per to say, ' Bismillah,' i. e., ' in the name of God ;' 
not to do so would be looked on as a bad augury, 
alike for him who enters and for those within. The 



112 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

visitor next advances in silence, till, on coming about 
half way across the room, he gives to all present, 
but looking specially at the master of the house, the 
customary ' Es-salamu aleyhum,' or * Peace be with 
you,' literally, ' on you.' All this while every one 
else in the room has kept his place, motionless, and 
without saying a word. But on receiving the sa- 
laam of etiquette, the master of the house rises, and 
if a strict Wahabee, or at any rate desirous of 
seeming such, replies with the full-length tradition- 
ary formula : ' And with (or, on) you be peace, and 
the mercy of God, and his blessings.' But should 
he happen to be of anti-Wahabee tendencies, the 
odds are that he will say ' Marhaba,' or ' Ahlan 
w' sahlan,' {. e., ' welcome,' or ' worthy and pleasurable,' 
or the like ; for of such phrases there is an infinite 
but elegant variety. All present follow the example 
thus given by rising^ and saluting. The guest then 
goes up to the master of the house, who has also 
made a step or two forwards, and places his open 
hand in the palm of his host's, but without grasping 
or shaking, which would hardly pass for decorous, 
and, at the same time, each repeats once more his 
greeting, followed by the set phrases of polite in- 
quiry, ' How are you ?' ' How goes the world with 
you ?' and so forth, all in a tone of great interest, 
and to be gone over three or four times, till one or 
other has the discretion to say ' El hamdu I'illah,' 
* Praise be to God,' or, in equivalent value, * all 
right,' and this is a signal for a seasonable diversion 
to the ceremonious interrogatory. 

"Meantime we have become engaged in active 



BESIDENGE IN THE DJOWR II3 

conversation with our host and his friends. But 
our Sherarat guide, Sulejman, like a true Bedouin, 
feels too awkward when among towns-folk, to ven- 
ture on the upper places, though repeatedly invited, 
and accordingly has squatted down on the sand 
near the entrance. Many of Ghafil's relations are 
present ; their silver-decorated swords proclaim the 
importance of the family. Others, too, have come 
to receive us, for our arrival, announced beforehand 
by those we had met at the entrance pass, is a sort 
of event in the town ; the dress of some betokens 
poverty, others are better clad, but all have a very 
pohte and decorous manner. Many a question is 
asked about our native land and town, that is to say, 
Syria and Damascus, conformably to the disguise 
already adopted, and which it was highly important 
to keep well up ; then follow inquiries regarding our 
journey, our business, what we have brought with 
us, about our medicines, our goods and wares, etc., 
etc. From the very first it is easy for us to per- 
ceive that patients and purchasers are likely to 
abound- Yery few travelling merchants, if any, 
visit the Djowf at this time of year, for one must be 
mad, or next door to it, to rush into the vast desert 
around during the heats of June and July ; I for 
one have certainly no intention of doing it again. 
Hence we had small danger of competitors, and 
found the market almost at our absolute disposal. 

" But before a quarter of an hour has passed, and 
while blacky is still roasting or pounding his coffee, 
a tall, thin lad, Ghafil's eldest son, appears, charged 
with a large circular dish, grass-platted like the 



114 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

rest, and throws it with a graceful jerk on the sandy 
floor close before ns. He then produces a large 
wooden bowl full of dates, bearing in the midst of 
the heap a cup full of melted butter ; all this he 
places on the circular mat, and says, ' SemmoOy 
literally, * pronounce the Name,' of God, under- 
stood ; this means, ' set to work at it.' Hereon the 
master of the house quits his place by the fireside, 
and seats himself on the sand opposite to us ; we 
draw nearer to the dish, and four or five others, 
after some respectful coyness, join the circle. Every 
one then picks out a date or two fiom the juicy, 
half-amalgamated mass, dips them into the butter, 
and thus goes on eating till he has had enough, 
when he rises and washes his hands." 

During the conversation, coffee was served three 
or four times, in small cups, half-filled, one of which 
the coffee-maker himself first drank, as a test. 
Ghafil again urged the travellers to set up their 
coffee and medicine shop in his own house ; but 
Palgrave had had no opportunity of writing since 
leaving Ma'an, and desired, moreover, to have fre- 
quent chances of consulting alone with his com- 
panion. It was not easy to decline the offer, but 
his knowledge of the Arab character furnished him 
with several plausible pretexts, which Ghafil was 
obliged to accept, insisting, however, that he should 
himself select them a convenient dwelling the next 
day. " The rest of the afternoon," says Palgrave, 
"was devoted to repose, and it was near sun et 
when our host invited us to visit his gardens in the 
cool of the evening. I will take the opportunity of 



RESIDENCE IN TEE DJOWF. II5 

leading my readers over the whole of the Djowf, as 
a general view will help better to understand what 
follows in the narrative, besides offering much that 
will be in part new, I should fancy, to the greater 
number. 

" This province is a sort of oasis, a large oval de- 
pression of sixty or seventy miles long, by ten or 
twelve broad, lying between the northern desert that 
separates it from Syria and the Euphrates, and. the 
southern Nefood, or sandy waste, and interposed 
between it and the nearest mountains of the central 
Arabian plateau. However, from its comparative 
proximity to the latter, no less than from the char- 
acter of its climate and productions, it belongs 
hardly so much to Northern as to Central Arabia, 
of which it is a kind of porch or vestibule. If an 
equilaterial triangle were to be drawn, having its 
base from Damascus to Bagdad, the vertex would 
find itself pretty exactly as the Djowf, which is thus 
at a nearly equal distance, southeast and soutk- 
west, from the two localities just mentioned, while 
the same cross-line, if continued, will give at about 
the same intervals of space in the opposite direc- 
tion, Medina on the one hand, and Zulphah, the 
great commercial door of Eastern Nedjed, on the 
other. Djebel Shomer lies almost dne south, and 
much nearer than any other of the places above 
specified. Partly to this central position, and partly 
to its own excavated form, the province owes its ap- 
propriate name of Djowf, or ' belly.' 

" The principal, or rather the only town of the 
district, all the rest being mere hamlets, bears the 



116 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. 

name of the entire region. It is composed of eight 
villages, once distinct, but which have in process of 
time coalesced into one, and exchanged their sepa- 
rate existence and name for that of Sook, or 
'quarter/ of the common borough. Of these 
Sooks, the principal is that belonging to the family 
Haboob, and in which we were now lodged. It in- 
cludes the central castle already mentioned, and 
numbers about four hundred houses. The other 
quarters, some larger, others smaller, stretch up and 
down the valley, but are connected together by their 
extensive gardens. The entire length of the town 
thus formed, with the cultivation immediately an- 
nexed, is full four miles, but the average breadth 
does not exceed half a mile, and sometimes falls 
short of it. 

" The size of the domicils varies with the condi- 
tion of their occupants, and the poor are contented 
with narrow lodgings, though always separate ; for 
I doubt if throughout the whole of Arabia two fa- 
milies, however needy, inhabit the same dwelling. 
Ghafil's abode, already described, may give a fair 
idea of the better kind; in such we have an 
outer court, for unlading camels and the like, an 
inner court, a large reception room, and several 
other smaller apartments, to which entrance is given 
by a private door, and where the family itself is 
lodged. 

" But another and a very characteristic feature 
of domestic architecture is the frequent addition, 
throughout the Djowf, of a round tower, from thirty 
to forty feet in height and twelve or more in 



RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF. 117 

breadth, with a narrow entrance and loop-holes 
above. This construction is sometimes contiguous 
to the dweliing-place, and sometimes isolated in a 
neighboring garden belonging to the same master. 
These towers once answered exactly the same pur- 
poses as the ' torri,' well known to travellers in 
many cities of Italy, at Bologna, Siena, Rome, and 
elsewhere, and denoted a somewhat analogous 
state of society to what formerly prevailed there. 
Hither, in time of the ever-recurring feuds between 
rival chiefs and factions, the leaders and their par- 
tisans used to retire for refuge ^nd defence, and 
hence they would make their salUes to burn and 
destroy. These towers, like all the modern edifices 
of the Djowf, are of unbaked bricks ; their great 
thickness and solidity of make, along with the ex- 
treme tenacity of the soil, joined to a very dry 
climate, renders the material a rival almost of stone- 
work in strength and endurance. Since the final 
occupation of this region by the forces of Telal, 
all these towers have, without exception, been ren- 
dered unfit for defence, and some are even half 
ruined. Here again the phenomena of Europe have 
repeated themselves in Arabia. 

" The houses are not unfrequently isolated each 
from the other by their gardens and plantations ; and 
this is especially the case with the dwellings of chiefs 
and their families. What has just been said about 
the towers renders the reasons of this isolation suffi- 
ciently obvious. But the dwelhngs of the com- 
moner sort are general clustered together, though 
without symmetry or method. 



118 TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 

" The gardens of the Djowf are much celebrated 
in this part of the East, and justly so. Thej are of 
a productiveness and variety superior to those of 
Djebel Shomer or of Upper Nedjed, and far beyond 
whatever the Hedjaz and its neighborhood can offer. 
Here, for the first time in our southward course, we 
found the date-palm a main object of cultivation ; 
and if its produce be inferior to that of the same 
tree in Nedjed and Hasa, it is far, very far, above 
whatever Egypt, Africa, or the valley of the Tigris 
from Bagdad to Bassora can show. However, the 
palm is by no means alone here. The apricot and 
the peach, the fig-tree and the vine, abound through- 
out these orchards, and their fruit surpasses in co- 
piousness and flavor, that supplied by the gardens 
of Damascus or the hills of Syria and Palestine. 
In the intervals between the trees or in the fields 
beyond, corn, leguminous plants, gourds, melons, 
etc., etc., are widely cultivated. Here, too, for the 
last time, the traveller bound for the interior sees 
the irrigation indispensable to all growth and tillage 
in this droughty climate kept up by running streams 
of clear water, whereas in the Nedjed and its neigh- 
borhood it has to be laboriously procured from wells 
and cisterns. 

" Besides the Djowf itself, or capital, there exist 
several other villages belonging to the same ho- 
monymous province, and all subject to the sime 
central governor. Of these the largest is Sekakah ; 
it lies at about twelve miles distant to the northeast, 
and though inferior to the principal town in import- 
ance and fertility of soil, almost equals it in the 



BESIDENCE IN TEE DJOWF. 119 

number of its inhabitants. I should reckon the 
united population of these two localities — men, wo- 
men, and children — at about thirty-three or thirty - 
four thousand souls. This calculation, like many 
others before us in the course of the work, rests 
partly on an approximate survey of the number of 
dwellings, partly on the military muster, and partly 
on what I heard on the subject from the natives 
themselves. A census is here unknown, and no 
register records birth, marriage, or death. Yet, by 
aid of the war list, which generally represents about 
one tenth of the entire population, a fair though not 
absolute idea may be obtained on this point. 

"Lastly, around and at no great distance from 
these main centres, are several small villages or 
hamlets, eight or ten in number, as I was told, and 
containing each of them from twenty to fifty or 
sixty houses. But I had neither time nor opportu- 
nity to visit each separately. They cluster round 
lesser water springs, and offer in miniature features 
much resembling those of the capital. The entire 
population of the province cannot exceed forty or 
forty-two thousand, but it is a brave one, and very 
liberally provided with the physical endowments of 
which it has been acutely said that they are seldom 
despised save by those who do not themselves 
possess them. Tall, well-proportioned, of a toler- 
ably fair complexion, set off by long curling locks of 
jet-black hair, with features for the most part 
regular and intelligent, and a dignified carriage, the 
Djowfites are eminently good specimens of what 
may be called the pure northern or Ishmaehtish Arab 



120 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

type, and in all these respects they yield the palm 
to the inhabitants of Djebel Shomer alone. Their 
large-developed forms and open countenance con- 
trast strongly with the somewhat dwarfish stature 
and suspicious under-glance of the Bedouin. They 
are, besides, a very healthy people, and keep up 
their strength and activity even to an advanced age. 
It is no uncommon occurrence here, to see an old 
man of seventy set out full-armed among a band of 
youths ; though, by the way, such " green old age " 
is often to be met with also in the central province 
further south, as I have had frequent opportunity of 
witnessing. The climate, too, is good and dry, and 
habits of out-door life contribute not a little to the 
maintenance of health and vigor. 

" In manners, as in locality, the worthies of Djowf 
occupy a sort of half-way position between Be- 
douins and the inhabitants of the cultivated dis- 
tricts. Thus they partake largely in the nomad's 
aversion to mechanical occupations, in his indiffer- 
ence to literary acquirements, in his aimless fickle- 
ness too, and even in his treacherous ways. I have 
said in the preceding chapter, that while we were 
yet threading the narrow gorge near the first en- 
trance of the valley, several horsemen appeared on 
the upper margin of the pass, and one of them ques- 
tioned our guide, and then, after a short consulta- 
tion with his companions, called out to us to go on 
and fear nothing. Now the name of this individual 
was Sulman-ebn-Dahir, a very adventurous and fairly 
intelligent young fellow, with whom next-door 
neighborhood and frequent intercourse rendered us 



RE8IDENGE IN THE DJOWF. 121 

intimate during our stay at the Djowf. One day, 
while we were engaged in friendly conversation, 
he said, half laughing, ' Do you know what we we re 
consulting about while you were in the pass below 
on the morning of your arrival? It was whether 
we should make you a good reception, and thus pro- 
cure ourselves the advantage of having you resi- 
dents amongst us, or whether we should not do 
better to kill you all three, and take our gain from 
the booty to be found in your baggage.' I replied 
with equal coolness, 'It might have proved an awk- 
ward affair for yourself and your friends, since 
Hamood your governor could hardly have failed to 
get wind of the matter, and would have taken it 
out of you.' ' Pooh ! ' replied our friend, ' never a 
bit ; as if a present out of the plunder would not 
have tied Hamood's tongue.' * Bedouins that you 
are,' said I, laughing. ' Of course we are,' 
answered Sulman, ' for such we all were till quite 
lately, and the present system is too recent to have 
much changed us.' However, he admitted that 
they all had, on second thoughts, congratulated 
themselves on not having preferred bloodshed to 
hospitality, though perhaps the better resolution 
was rather owing to interested than to moral mo- 
tives. 

" The most distinctive good feature of the inhabi- 
tants of Djowf is their liberality. Nowhere else, 
even in Arabia, is the guest, so at least he be not 
murdered before admittance, better treated, or more 
cordially invited to become in every way one of 
themselves. Courage, too, no one denies them, and 



122 TRAVELS m ARABIA. 

they are equally lavish of their own lives and prop- 
erty as of their neighbors.' 

" Let us now resume the narrative. On the morn- 
ing after our arrival — it was now the 1st of July — 
Ghafil caused a small house in the neighborhood, 
belonging to one of his dependents, to be put at our 
entire disposal, according to our previous request. 
This, our new abode, consisted of a small court with 
two rooms, one on each side, for warehouse and ha- 
bitation, the whole being surrounded wdth an outer 
wall, whose door was closed by lock and bolt. Of a 
kitchen-room there was small need, so constant and 
hospitable are the invitations of the good folks here 
to strangers ; and if our house was not over capa- 
cious, it afforded at least what we most desired, 
namely, seclusion and privacy at will ; it was, more- 
over, at our host's cost, rent and reparations. 

" Hither, accordingly, we transferred baggage and 
chattels, and arranged everything as comfortably as 
we best could. And as we had already concluded 
from the style and conversation of those around us, 
that their state of society was hardly far enough ad- 
vanced to offer a sufficiently good prospect for me- 
dical art, whose exercise, to be generally advanta- 
geous, requires a certain amount of culture and 
aptitude in the patient, no less than of skill in the 
physician, we resolved to make commerce our main 
affair here, trusting that by so doing we shoald gain 
a second advantage, that of lightening our more 
bulky goods, such as coffee and cloth, whose trans- 
port had already annoyed us not a little. 

" But in fact we were not more desirous to sell 



RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF. 123 

than the men, women, and children of the Djowf 
were to buy. From the very outset our Httle court- 
yard was crowded with customers, and the most 
amusing scenes of Arab hagghng, in all its mixed 
shrewdness and simplicity, diverted us through the 
week. Handkerchief after handkerchief, yard after 
yard of cloth, beads for the women, knives, combs, 
looking-glasses, and what not ? (for our stock was a 
thorough miscellany,) were soon sold off, some for 
ready money, others on credit ; and it is but justice 
to say that all debts so contracted were soon paid 
in very honestly ; Oxford High Street tradesmen, 
at least in former times, were not always equally 
fortunate. 

" Meanwhile we had the very best opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with and appreciating all 
classes, nay, almost all individuals of the place. 
Peasants too from various hamlets arrived, led by 
rumor, whose trumpet, prone to exaggerate under 
every sky, had proclaimed us throughout the valley 
of Djowf for much more important characters, and 
possessed of a much larger stock in hand than was 
really the case. All crowded in, and before long 
there were more customers than wares assembled in 
the store-room. 

" Our manner of passing the time was as follows. 
We used to rise at early dawn, lock up the house, 
and go out in the pure cool air of the morning to 
some quiet spot among the neighboring palm- 
groves, or scale the wall of some garden, or pass 
right on through the by-lanes to where cultivation 
merges in the adjoining sands of the valley ; in 



124 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

short, to any convenient place where we might hope 
to pass an hour of quiet, undisturbed by Arab so- 
ciabiHty, and have leisure to plan our work for the 
day. We would then return home about sunrise, 
and find outside the door some tall lad sent sent by 
his father, generally one of the wealthier and more 
influential inhabitants of the quarter yet unvisited 
by us, waiting our return, to invite us to an early 
breakfast. We would now accompany our Mer- 
cury to his domicil, where a hearty reception, and 
some neighors collected for the occasion, or at- 
tracted by a cup of good coffee, were sure to be in 
attendance. Here an hour or so would wear away, 
and some medical or mercantile transaction be 
sketched out. We, of course, would bring the con- 
versation, whenever it was possible, on local topics, 
according as those present seemed likely to afford 
us exact knowledge and insight into the real state 
and circumstances of the land. We would then re- 
turn to our own quarters, where a crowd of custom- 
ers, awaiting us, would allow us neither rest nor 
pause till noon. Then a short interval for date or 
pumpkin eating in some neighbor's house would 
occur, and after that business be again resumed for 
three or four hours. A walk among the gardens, 
rarely alone, more often in company with friends 
and acquaintances, would follow ; and meanwhile an 
invitation to supper somewhere had unfailingly been 
given and accepted." 

"After supper all rise, wash their hands, and 
then go out into the open air to sit and smoke a 
quiet pipe under the still transparent sky of the sum- 



RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF. 125 

mer evening. Neither mist nor vapor, mucla less a 
cloud, appears ; the moon dips down in silvery white- 
ness to the very verge of the palm-tree tops, and the 
last rays of daylight are almost as sharp and clear 
as the dawn itself. Chat and society continue for 
an hour or two, and then every one goes home, most 
to sleep, I fancy, for few Penseroso lamps are here 
to be seen at midnight hour, nor does the spirit of 
Plato stand much risk of unsphering from the noc- 
turnal studies of the Djowf; we, to write our jour- 
nal, or to compare observations and estimate char- 
acters. 

" Sometimes a comfortable landed proprietor 
would invite us to pass an extemporary holiday 
morning in his garden, or rather orchard, there 
to eat grapes and enjoy ourselves at will, seated 
under clustering vine-trellises, with palm-trees above 
and running streams around. How pleasant it was 
after the desert ! At other times visits of patients, 
prescriptions, and similar duties would take up a 
part of the day ; or some young fellow, particularly 
desirous of information about Syria or Egypt, or 
perhaps curious after history and moral science, 
would hold us for a couple of hours in serious and 
sensible talk, at any rate to our advantage." 

It was necessary that the travellers should not 
delay in paying their official visit to Hamood, the 
vicegerent of Telal. His residence is in the centre 
of the garden region, near a solitary round tower, 
whose massive stone w^alls are mentioned in Arabi- 
an poetry. Hamood's residence is an irregular 
structure, of more recent date, with no distinguishing 



126 TRAVELS m ARABIA. 

feature except a tower about fifty feet in height. 
Palgrave and his companion were accompanied by a 
large number of their newly-found friends. After 
passing through an outer court, filled with armed 
guards, they found the ruler, seated in his large 
reception hall : 

" There, in the place of distinction, which he never 
yields to any individual of Djowf, whatever be his 
birth or wealth, appeared the governor, a strong, 
broad-shouldered, dark-browed, dark-eyed man, 
clad in the long white shirt of the country, and over 
it a handsome black cloak, embroidered with crim- 
son silk ; on his august head a silken handkerchief 
or J^effeeyeh, girt by a white band of finely woven 
camel's hair ; and in his fingers a grass fan. He 
rose graciously on our approach, extended to us the 
palm of his hand, and made us sit down near his 
side, keeping, however, Ghafil, as an old acquain- 
tance, between himself and us, perhaps as a precau- 
tionary arrangement against any sudden assault or 
treasonable intention on our part, for an Arab, be 
he who he may, is never off his guard when new 
faces are in presence. In other respects he showed 
us much courtesy and good will, made many civil 
inquiries about our health after so fatiguing a jour- 
ney, praised Damascus and the Damascenes, by 
way of an indirect compliment, and offered us a 
lodging in the castle. But here Ghafil availed him- 
self of the privileges conceded by Arab custom to 
priority of hostship to put in his negative on our 
behalf ; nor were we anxious to press the matter. A 
pound or so of our choicest coffee, with which we on 



RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWK 127 

this occasion presented his excellencj^ both as a mute 
witness to the object of our journey, and the better to 
secure his good will, was accepted very readily by 
the great man, who in due return offered us his best 
services. We replied that we stood in need of noth- 
ing save his long life, this being the Arab formula 
for rejoinder to such fair speeches ; and, next in 
order, of means to get safe on to Ha'yel so soon as 
our business at the Djowf should permit, being de- 
sirous to establish ourselves under the immediate 
patronage of Telal. In this he promised to aid us, 
and kept his word." 

Hamood afterwards politely returned their visit, 
and they frequently went to his castle for the pur- 
pose of studying the many interesting scenes pre- 
sented by the exercise of the very primitive Arab 
system of justice. Palgrave gives the following case 
as a specimen : 

" One day my comrade and myself were on a visit 
of mere politeness at the castle ; the customary cere- 
monies had been gone through, and business, at first 
interrupted by our entrance, had resumed its course. 
A Bedouin of the Ma'az tribe was pleading his cause 
before Hamood, and accusing some one of having 
forcibly taken away his camel. The governor was 
seated with an air of intense gravity in his corner, 
half leaning on a cushion, while the Bedouin, cross- 
legged on the ground before him, and within six feet 
of his person, flourished in his hand a large reaping 
hook, identically that which is here used for cutting 
grass. Energetically gesticulating with this grace- 
ful implement, he thus challenged his judge's atten- 



128 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

tion : * You, Hamood, do you hear ?' (stretching 
out at the same time the hook towards the gover- 
nor, so as almost to reach his body, as though he 
meant to rip him open ;) ' he has taken from me 
my camel ; have you called God to mind ?' (again 
putting his weapon close to the unflinching magis- 
trate ;) ' the camel is my camel ; do you hear ?' (with 
another reminder from the reaping hook ;) * he is 
mine, by God's award and yours too ; do you hear, 
child ?' and so on, while Hamood sat without mov- 
ing a muscle of face or limb, imperturbable and im- 
passible, till some one of the counsellors quieted the 
plaintiff, with ' Remember God, child ; it is of no 
consequence, you shall not be wronged.' Then the 
judge called on the witnesses, men of the Djowf, to 
say their say, and on their confirmation of the Be- 
douin's statement, gave orders to two of his satel- 
lites to search for and bring before him the accused 
party; while he added to the Ma'azee, 'All right, 
daddy, you shall have your own ; put your confi- 
dence in God,' and composedly motioned him back 
to his place. 

" A fortnight and more went by, and found us still 
in the Djowf, ' honored guests ' in Arab phrase, and 
well rested from the bygone fatigues of the desert. 
Ghafil's dwelling was still, so to speak, our official 
home ; but there were two other houses where we 
were still more at our ease ; that of Dafee, the 
same who along with Ghafilcame to meet us on our 
first arrival ; and that of Salim, a respectable and, 
in his way, a literary old man, our near neighbor, and 
surrounded by a large family of fine strapping youths, 



RESIDENCE IN TEE DJOWF. 129 

all of them brought up more or less in the fear of 
Allah and in good example. Hither we used to 
retire when wearied of Ghafil and his like, and pass 
a quiet hour in their K'hawah, reciting or hearing 
Arab poetry, talking over the condition of the coun- 
try and its future prospects, discussing points of mo- 
rality, or commenting on the ways and fashions of 
the day." 

The important question for the travellers was 
how they should get to Djebel Shorn er, the great 
fertile oasis to the south, under the rule of the fa- 
mous Prince Telal? The terrible Nefood, or sand- 
passes, which the Arabs themselves look upon with 
dread, must be crossed, and it was now the middle 
of summer. The hospitable people of the Djowf 
begged Palgrave and his friends to remain until 
September, and they probably would have been de- 
layed for some time, but for a lucky chance. The 
Azzam tribe of Bedouins, which had been attacked 
by Prince Telal, submitted, and a dozen of their 
chiefs arrived at the Djowf, on their way to Djebel 
Shomer, where they purposed to win Telal's good 
graces by tendering him their allegiance in his very 
capital. Hamood received them, and lodged them 
for several days, while they rested from their past 
fatigues, and prepared themselves for what yet lay 
before them. Some inhabitants of the Djowf, 
whose business required their presence at Ha'yel, 
were to join the party. "Hamood sent for us," 
Palgrave continues, " and gave us notice of this ex- 
pedition, and on our declaring that we desired to 
profit by it, he handed us a scrap of paper, ad- 



X30 TRAVELS IN ARABTA. 

dressed to Telal himself, wherein he certified that 
we had duly paid the entrance fee exacted from 
strangers on their coming within the limits of Sho- 
mer rule, and that we were indeed respectable indi- 
viduals, worthy of all good treatment. We then, 
in presence of Hamood, struck our bargain with 
one of the band for a couple of camels, whose 
price, including all the services of their master as 
guide and companion for ten days of July travel- 
ling, was not extravagant either ; it came up to just 
a hundred and ten piastres, equivalent to eighteen 
or nineteen shillings of English money. 

" Many delays occurred, and it was not till the 
18th of July, when the figs were fully ripe— a cir- 
cumstance which furnished the natives of Djowf 
with new cause of wonder at our rushing away, in 
lieu of waiting like rational beings to enjoy the 
good things of the land — that we received our final 
* Son of Hodeirah, depart.' This was intimated to 
us, not by a locust, but by a creature almost as 
queer, namely, our new conductor, a half cracked 
Arab, neither peasant nor Bedouin, but something 
anomalous between the two, hight Djedey', and a 
native of the outskirts of Djebel Shomer, who dar- 
kened our door in the forenoon, and warned us to 
make our final packing up, and get ready for start- 
ing the same day. 

"When once clear of the houses and gardens, 
Djedey' led us by a road skirting the southern side 
of the valley, till we arrived, before sunset, at the 
other, or eastern extremity of the town. Here was 
the rendezvous agreed on by our companions ; but 



BESIDENCE IN THE BJOWF. 131 

they did not appear, and reason good, for they had 
right to a supper more under Hamood's roof, and 
were loth to lose it. So we halted and alighted 
alone. The chief of this quarter, which is above 
two miles distant from the castle, invited us to sup- 
per, and thence we returned to our baggage, there 
to sleep. To pass a summer's night in the open air 
on a soft sand bed, implies no great privation in 
these countries, nor is any one looked on as a hero 
for so doing. 

"Early next morning, while Venus yet shone like 
a drop of melted silver on the slaty blue, three of 
our party arrived and announced that the rest of 
our companions would soon come up. Encouraged 
by the news, we determined to march on without 
further tarrying, and ere sunrise we climbed the 
steep ascent of the southerly bank, whence we had 
a magnificent view of the whole length of the 
Djowf, its castle and towers, and groves and gar- 
dens, in the ruddy light of morning, and beyond 
the drear northern deserts stretching far away. 
We then dipped down the other side of the border- 
ing hill, not again to see the Djowf till — who 
knows when ?" 



CHAPTEE X. 

PALGRAVE's travels — CROSSING THE NEFOOD. 

OUE. waj was now to the southeast, across a 
large plain varied with sand-mounds and cov- 
ered with the ghada bush, already described, so that 
our camels were much more inclined to crop pasture 
than to do their business in journeying ahead. 
About noon we halted near a large tuft of this 
shrub, at least ten feet high. We constructed a sort 
of cabin with boughs broken off the neighboring 
plants and suitably arranged shedwise, and thus 
passed the noon hours of intolerable heat till the 
whole band came in sight. 

" They were barbarous, nay, almost savage fel- 
lows, like most Sherarat, whether chiefs or people ; 
but they had been somewhat awed by the grandeurs 
of Hamood, and yet more so by the prospect of com- 
ing so soon before the terrible majesty of Telal him- 
self. All were duly armed, and had put on their best 
suits of apparel, an equipment worthy of a scare- 
crow or of an Irishman at a wake. Tattered red 
overalls ; cloaks with more patches than original 
substance, or, worse yet, which opened large mouths 



CROSSING THE NEFOOD. I33 

to cry for patching, but had not got it ; little broken 
tobacco pipes, and no trousers soever (by the way, 
all genuine Arabs are sans-culottes ;) faces meagre 
with habitual hunger, and black with dirt and 
weather stains ; — such were the high-born chiefs of 
Azzam, on their way to the king's levee. Along 
with them were two Bedouins of the Shomer tribe, a 
degree better in guise and person than the Shera- 
rat ; and lastly, three men of Djowf, who looked 
almost like gentlemen among such ragamuffins. As 
to my comrade and myself, I trust that the reader 
will charitably suppose us the exquisites of the par- 
ty. So we rode on together. 

" Next morning, a little after sunrise, we arrived 
at a white calcareous valley, girt round wdth low 
hills of marl and sand. Here was the famous Be'er 
Shekeek, or " well of Shekeek," whence we were to 
fill our water-skins, and that thoroughly, since no 
other source lay before us for four days' march amid 
the sand passes, up to the very verge of Djebel Sho- 
mer. 

" Daughters of the Great Desert, to use an Arab 
phrase, the ' Nefood,' or sand passes, bear but too 
strong a family resemblance to their unamiable mo- 
ther. What has been said elsewhere about their 
origin, their extent, their bearings, and their con- 
nection with the D'hana, or main sand waste of the 
south, may exempt me from here entering on a 
minute enarration of all their geographical details ; 
let it suffice for the present that they are offshoots 
— inlets, one might not unsuitably call them — of the 
great ocean of sand that covers about one third of 



134 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

the peninsula, into whose central and comparatively 
fertile plateau they make deep inroads, nay, in some 
places almost inteirsect it. Their general character, 
of which the following pages will, I trust, give a 
tolerably correct idea, is also that of Dahna, or 
* red desert,' itself. The Arabs, always prone to 
localize rather than generalize, count these sand- 
streams by scores, but they may all be referred to 
four principal courses, and he who would traverse 
the centre must necessarily cross two of them, per- 
haps even three, as we did. 

" The general type of Arabia is that of a central 
table-land, surrounded by a desert ring, sandy to 
the south, west, and east, and stony to the north. 
This outlying circle is in its turn girt by a line of 
mountains, low and sterile for the most, but attain- 
ing in Yemen and Oman considerable height, 
breadth, and fertility, while beyond these a narrow 
rim of coast is bordered by the sea. The surface 
of the midmost table-land equals somewhat less 
than one half of the entire peninsula, and its spe- 
cial demarcations are much affected, nay, often ab- 
solutely fixed, by the windings and in-runnings of 
the Nefood. If to these central highlands, or Ned- 
jed, taking that word in its wider sense, we add the 
Djowf, the Ta'yif, Djebel 'Aaseer, Yemen, Oman, 
and Hasa, in short, whatever spots of fertiUty 
belong to the outer circles, we shall find that Arabia 
contains about two thirds of cultivated, or at least 
of cultivable land, with a remaining third of irre- 
claimable desert, chiefly to the south. In most 
other directions the great blank spaces often left in 




CAPTAIN BURTON AS A PILGRIM. 



CROSSING THE NEFOOD. . 135 

maps of this country are quite as frequently indi- 
cations of non-information as of real non-inhabita- 
tion. However, we have just now a strip, though 
fortunately only a strip, of pure, unmitigated desert 
before us, after which better lands await us ; and 
in this hope let us take courage, and boldly enter 
the Nefood. 

" Much had we heard of them from Bedouins 
and countrymen, so that we had made up our minds 
to something very terrible and very impracticable. 
But the reality, especially in these dog days, proved 
worse than aught heard or imagined. 

" We were now traversing an immense ocean of 
loose reddish sand, unlimited to tlie eye, and 
heaped up in enormous ridges, running parallel to 
each other from north to south, undulation after un- 
dulation, each swell two or three hundred feet in 
average height, with slant sides and rounded crests 
furrowed in every direction by the capricious gales 
of the desert. In the depths between the traveller 
finds himself as it were imprisoned in a suffocating 
sand-pit, hemmed in by burning walls on every side ; 
while at other times, while laboring up the slope, he 
overlooks what seems a vast sea of fire, swelling 
under a heavy monsoon wind, and ruffled hj a cross 
blast into little red-hot waves. Neither shelter nor 
rest for eye or limb amid torrents of light and heat 
poured from above on an answering glare reflected 
below. Add to this the weariness of long summer 
days of toiling — I might better say wading — through 
the loose and scorching soil, on drooping, half- 
stupefied beastts, with few and interrupted hours of 



136 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

sleep at night, and no rest by day because no shel- 
ter, little to eat and less to drink, while the tepid 
and discolored water in the skins rapidly diminishes, 
even more by evaporation than by use, and a ver- 
tical sun, such a sun, strikes blazing down till clothes, 
baggage, and housings all take the smell of burning, 
and scarce permit the touch. The boisterous gaiety 
of the Bedouins was soon expended, and scattered, 
one to front, another behind, each pursued his way 
in silence only broken by the angry snarl of the 
camels when struck, as they often were, to improve 
their pace. 

" It was on the 20th of July, a little after noon, 
that we had left Be'er Shekeek. The rest of that 
day and almost all night we journeyed on, for here 
three or four hours of repose at a time, supper 
included, was aD. that could be taken, since, if we 
did not reach the other side of the Nefood before 
our store of water was exhausted, we were lost 
for certain. Indeed, during the last twenty-four 
hours of these passes, to call them by their Arab 
name, we had only one hour of halt. Monday, 
the 21st of July, wore slowly away, most slowly it 
seemed, in the same labor, and amid the same un- 
varying scene. The loose sand hardly admits of 
any vegetation ; even the ghada, which, like many 
other Euphorbias, seems hardly to require either 
earth or moisture for its sustenance, is here scant 
and miserably stunted ; none can afford either shel- 
ter or pasture. Sometimes a sort of track appears, 
more often none ; the moving surface has long since 
lost the traces of those who last crossed it. 



GBOSSING THE NEFOOD. 137 

" About this time we noticed in the manner of 
our Sherarat companions, especially the younger 
ones, a certain insolent familiarity which put us 
much on our guard; for it is the custom of the 
Bedouin, when meditating plunder or treachery, to 
try the ground first in this fashion, and if he sees 
any signs of timidity or yielding in his intended 
victim, he takes it as a signal for proceeding further. 
The best plan in such cases is to put on a sour face 
and keep silence, with now and then a sharp repri- 
mand by way of intimidation, and this often cows 
the savage, just as a barking dog will shrink back 
under a steady look. Such was accordingly our 
conduct on the present occasion. We kept apart 
for hours at a time, and when alongside of the 
brigands, said little, and that little anything but 
friendly. Before long the more impudent appeared 
abashed or embarrassed, and fell back, while an old 
Azzam chief, with a dry face like a withered crab- 
apple, pushed his dromedary up alongside of mine, 
under pretext of seeking medical advice, but in 
reality to make thus a proffer of friendliness and re- 
spect. Of course I met his advances with cold and 
sullen reserve ; and hereon he began to apologize 
for the ' Ghushm,' ' ill-bred clowns ' of his party, as- 
suring us that they had, however, no bad intention ; 
that it was merely want of good education ; that all 
were our brothers, our servants, etc., etc. 

" I afterwards learned from the Shomer Bedouins 
and from the men of Djowf, that the worthy She- 
rarat, supposing us to have amassed great wealth 
under Ha mood's patronage, had seriously proposed 



138 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

to take the opportunity of this desert solitude to 
pillage us, and then leave us without water or 
camels to find our way out of the Nefood as best 
we might, that is, never. This little scheme they 
had communicated to the Shomer, hoping for their 
compliance and aid. But these last, more accus- 
tomed to the restraints of neighboring rule, were 
afraid of the consequences ; knowing, too, that Telal, 
if anyhow informed of such proceedings, might 
very possibly constitute himself our sole legatee, 
executor, and something more. Accordingly they 
refused to join, and the conspirators, who perceived 
from our manner that we already had some suspicion 
about their intentions, hastened to plaster matters 
over before we should be in a way to compromise 
their position at Ha'yel, by complaints of their 
meditated treachery, 

" Near sunset of the second day we came in sight 
of two lonely pyramidal peaks of dark granite, ris- 
ing amid the sand-waves full in our way. ' 'Aalam- 
es-Sa'ad,' the people call them, that is, ' the signs 
of good luck,' because they indicate that about one- 
third of the distance from Be'er-Shekeek to Djebel 
Shomer has been here passed. They stand out hke 
islands, or rather like the rocks that start from the 
sea near the mouth of the Tagus, or like the Mal- 
dive group in the midst of the deep Indian Ocean. 
Their roots must be in the rocky base over which 
this upper layer of sand is strewn like the sea-water 
over its bed ; we shall afterwards meet with similar 
phenomena in other desert spots. Here the under 
stratum is evidently of granite, sometimes it is cal- 



r cBossiNa the nefood. 139 

careous. As to the average depth of the sand, I 
should estimate it at about four hundred feet, but it 
may not unfrequently be much more ; at least I have 
met with hollows of full six hundred feet in perpen- 
dicular descent. 

" On we journeyed with the 'Aalam-es-Sa'ad 
looming dark before us, till when near midnight, so 
far as I could calculate by the stars, our only time- 
piece, (and not a bad one in these clear skies,) we 
passed close under the huge black masses of rock. 
Vainly had I flattered myself with a halt, were it 
but of half an hour, on the occasion. * On we 
swept,' and not till the morning star rose close be- 
neath the Pleiades was the word given to dismount. 
We tumbled rather than lay down on the ground ; 
an(^before sunrise were once more on our way. 

" Soon we reached the summit of a gigantic 
sand ridge. * Look there,' said Djedey' to us, and 
pointed forwards. Far off on the extreme horizon a 
blue cloud-like peak appeared, and another some- 
what lower at its side. ^ Those are the mountains 
of Djobbah, and the nearest limits of Djebel 
Shomer,' said our guide. Considering how loose 
the water-skins now flapped at the camel's side, my 
first thought" was, ^ how are we to reach them ? ' 
All the band seemed much of the same mind, for 
they pushed on harder than before." 

" But the further we advanced the worse did the 
desert grow, more desolate, more hopeless in its 
barren waves ; and at noon our band broke up into 
a thorough ' sauve qui pent ; ' some had already 
exhausted their provisions, solid or liquid, and 



140 TRAVELS IN ABABIA. 

others were scarcely better furnished ; every one 
goaded on his beast to reach the land of rest and 
safety. Djedey', my comrade, and myself, kept 
naturally together. On a sudden my attention was 
called to two or three sparrows, twittering under a 
shrub by the wayside. They were the first birds we 
had met with in this desert, and indicated our ap- 
proach to cultivation and life. I bethought me of 
tales heard in childhood, at a comfortable fireside, 
how some far-wandering sailors, Columbus and his 
crew, if my memory serves me right, after days and 
months of dreary ocean, welcomed a bird that, 
borne from a yet undiscovered coast, first settled on 
their mast. My comrade fell a-crying for very joy. 

" However we had yet a long course before us, 
and we ploughed on all that evening with scare* an 
hour's halt for a most scanty supper, and then all 
night up and down the undulating labyrinth, like 
men in an enchanter's circle, fated always to journey 
and never to advance." 

" The morning broke on us stiU toiling amid the 
sands. By daylight we saw our stragghng com- 
panions like black specks here and there, one far 
ahead on a yet vigorous dromedary, another in the 
rear dismounted, and urging his fallen beast to rise 
by plunging a knife a good inch deep into its 
haunces, a third lagging in' the extreme distance. 
Every one for himself and God for us all ! — so we 
quickened our pace, looking anxiously before us for 
the hills of Djobbah, which could not now be distant. 
At noon we came in sight of them all at once, close 
on our right, wild and fantastic cliffs, rising sheer on 



CEOSSING THE NEFOOD. 141 

the margin of the sand sea. We coasted them 
awhile, till at a turn the whole plain of Djobbah and 
its landscape opened on our view. 
. " Here we had before us a cluster of black granite 
rock, streaked with red, and about seven hundred 
feet, at a rough guess, in height ; beyond them a 
large barren plain, partly white and encrusted with 
salt, partly green with tillage, and studded with 
palm groves, amongst which we could discern, not 
far off, the village of Djobbah, much resembling 
that of Djowf in arrangement and general appear- 
ance, only smaller, and without castle or tow^er. 
Beyond the valley glistened a second line of sand- 
hills, but less wild and desolate looking than those 
behind us, and far in the distance the main range of 
Djebel Shomer, a long purple sierra of most pictur- 
esque outline. Had we there and then mounted, 
as we afterwards did, the heights on our right, we 
should have also seen in the extreme southwest a 
green patch near the horizon, where cluster the 
palm plantations of Teymah, a place famed in Arab 
history, and by some supposed identical with the 
Teman of Holy Writ. 

" But for the moment a drop of fresh water and 
a shelter from the July sun was much more in 
our thoughts than all the Teymahs or Temans that 
ever existed. My camel, too, was not at the end of 
his wits, for he never had any, but of his legs, and 
hardly capable of advance, while I was myself too 
tired to urge him vigorously, and we took a fair hour 
to cross a narrow white strip of mingled salt and 
sand that yet intervened between us and the village. 



142 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

" Without its garden walls was pitched the very 
identical tent of our noble guide, and here his wife 
and family were anxiously awaiting their lord. 
Djedey* invited us — indeed he could not conform- 
ably with Shomer customs do less — to partake of 
his board and lodging, and we had no better course 
than to accept of both. So we let our camels fling 
themselves out like dead or dying alongside of the 
tabernacle, and entered to drink water mixed with 
sour milk." Here the caravan rested for a day. 

" About sunrise on the 25th of July we left Djob- 
bah, crossed the valley to the southeast, and entered 
once more on a sandy desert, but a desert, as I have 
before hinted, of a milder and less inhospitable 
character than the dreary Nefood of two days back. 
Here the sand is thickly sprinkled with shrubs, and 
not altogether devoid of herbs and grass ; while the 
undulations of the surface, running invariably from 
north to south, according to the general rule of that 
phenomenon, are much less deeply traced, though 
never wholly absent. We paced on all day ; at 
nightfall we found ourselves on the edge of a vast 
funnel-like depression, where the sand recedes on 
all sides to leave bare the chalky bottom-strata be- 
low ; here lights glimmering amid Bedouin tents in 
the depths of the valley invited us to try our chance 
of a preliminary supper before the repose of the 
night. We had, however, much ado to descend the 
cavity, so steep was the sandy slope ; while its cir- 
cular form and spiral marking reminded me of Edgar 
Poe's imaginative ' Maelstrom.' The Arabs to 
whom the watch-fires belonged were shepherds of 



CROSSING TEE NEFOOD. 143 

the numerous Shomer tribe, whence the district, 
plain and mountain, takes it name. They wel- 
comed us to a share of their supper ; and a good 
dish of rice, instead of insipid samh or pasty, au- 
gured a certain approach to civilization. 

" At break of day we resumed our march, and 
met with camels and camel-drivers in abundance, 
besides a few sheep and goats. Before noon we 
had got clear of the sandy patch, and entered in its 
stead on a firm gravelly soil. Here we enjoyed an 
hour of midday halt and shade in a natural cavern, 
hollowed out in a high granite rock, itself an ad- 
vanced guard of the main body of Djebel Shomer. 
This mountain range now rose before us, wholly un- 
like any other that I had ever seen ; a huge mass of 
crag and stone, piled up in fastastic disorder, with 
green valleys and habitations intervening. The sun 
had not yet set when we reached the pretty village 
of Kenah, amid groves and waters — no more, how- 
ever, running streams like those of Djowf, but an 
artificial irrigation by means of w^ells and buckets. 
At some distance from the houses stood a cluster of 
three or four large over-shadowing trees, objects of 
peasant veneration here, as once in Palestine. The 
welcome of the inhabitants, when we dismounted at 
their doors, was hearty and hospitable, nay, even 
polite and considerate ; and a good meal, with a dish 
of fresh grapes for dessert, was soon set before us 
in the veranda of a pleasant little house, much re- 
minding me of an English farm-cottage, whither the 
good man of the dwelling had invited us for the 
evening. All expressed great desire to profit by 



144 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA, 

our medical skill ; and on our replj that we conld 
not conveniently open shop except at the capital 
Ha'yel, several announced their resolution to visit 
us there ; and subsequently kept their word, thou h 
at the cost of about twenty-four miles of journey. 

" We rose very early. Our path, well tracked 
and trodden, now lay between ridges of precipitous 
rock, rising abruptly from a level and grassy plain ; 
sometimes the road was sunk in deep gorges, some- 
times it o tned ou on wider spaces, where trees 
and villagers appeared, while the number of wayfar- 
ers, on foot or mounted, single or in bands, still in- 
creased as we drew nearer to the capital. There was 
an air of newness and security about the dwellings 
and plantations hardly to be found now-a-days in 
any other part of Arabia, Oman alone excepted. I 
may add also the great frequency of young trees 
and ground newly enclosed, a cheerful sight, yet 
further enhanced by the total absence of ruins, so 
common in the East ; hence the general effect pro- 
duced by Djebel Shomer, when contrasted with 
most other provinces or kingdoms around, near and 
far, is that of a newly coined piece, in all its sharp- 
ness and shine, amid a dingy heap of defaced cur- 
rency. It is a fresh creation, and shows what 
Arabia might be under better rule than it enjoys 
for the most part : an inference rendered the more 
conclusive by the fact that in natural and unaided 
fertility Djebel Shomer is perhaps the least favored 
district in the entire central peninsula. 

" We were here close under the backbone of 
Djebel Shomer, whose reddish crags rose in the ' 



CROssma the nefood. 145 

strangest forms on onr right and left, while a narrow 
cleft down to the plain-level below gave opening to 
the capital. Very hard to bring an army through 
this against the will of the inhabitants, thought I ; 
fifty resolute men could, in fact, hold the pass 
against thousands ; nor is there any other approach 
to Ha'yel from the northern direction. The town is 
situated near the very centre of the mountains ; it 
was as yet entirely concealed from our view by the 
windings of the road amid huge piles of rock. 
Meanwhile from Djobbah to Ha'yel, the whole plain 
gradually rises, running up between the sierras, 
whose course from northeast to southwest crosses 
two-thirds of the upper peninsula, and forms the 
outwork of the central high country. Hence the 
name of Nedjed, literally 'highland,' in contradis- 
tinction to the coast and the outlying provinces of 
lesser elevation. 

" The sun was yet two hours' distance above the 
western horizon, when we threaded the narrow and 
winding defile, till we arrived at its further end. 
Here we found ourselves on the verge of a large 
plain, many miles in length and breadth, and girt 
on every side by a high mountain rampart, while 
right in front of us, at scarce a quarter of an 
hour's march, lay the town of Ha'yel, surrounded 
by fortifications of about twenty feet in height, 
with bastion towers, some round, some square, and 
large folding gates at intervals ; it offered the same 
show of freshness, and even of something like 
irregular elegance that had before struck us in the 
villages on our way. This, however, was a full- 



146 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

grown town, and its area might readily hold three 
hundred thousand inhabitants or more, were its 
streets and houses close packed like those of Brus- 
sels or Paris. But the number of citizens does not, 
in fact, exceed twenty or twenty-two thousand, 
thanks to the many large gardens, open spaces, and 
even plantations, included within the outer walls, 
while the immense palace of the monarch alone, 
with its pleasure grounds annexed, occupies about 
one tenth of the entire city. Our attention was 
attracted by a lofty tower, some seventy feet in 
height, of recent construction, and oval form, be- 
longing to the royal residence. The plain all 
around the town is studded with isolated houses 
and gardens, the property of wealthy citizens, or of 
members of the kingly family, and on the far off 
skirts of the plain appear the groves belonging to 
Kafar, 'Adwah, and other villages, placed at the 
openings of the mountain gorges that conduct to 
the capital. The town walls and buildings shone 
yellow in the evening sun, and the whole prospect 
was one of thriving security, delightful to view, 
though wanting in the peculiar luxuriance of vege- 
tation offered by the valley of Djowf. A few Be- 
douin tents lay clustered close by the ramparts, and 
the great number of horsemen, footmen, camels, 
asses, peasants, townsmen, boys, women and other 
like, all passing to and fro on their various avoca- 
tions, gave cheerfulness and animation to the scene. 
"We crossed the plain and made for the town 
gate, opposite the castle ; next, with no little diffi- 
culty, prevailed on our camels to pace the high- 



CBOSSING THE NEFOOB. 147 

walled street, and at last arrived at the open space 
in front of the palace. It was yet an hour before 
sunset, or rather more ; the business of the day 
was over in Ha'yel, and the outer courtyard where 
we now stood was crowded with loiterers of all 
shapes and sizes. We made our camels kneel 
down close by the palace gate, alongside of some 
forty or fifty others, and then stepped back to re- 
pose our very weary limbs on a stone bench oppo- 
site the portal, and waited what might* next occur." 



CHAPTER XI. 

PALGRAYE'S travels. — LIFE IN Ha'YEL. 

AT our first appearance a slight stir takes place. 
The customary salutations are given and re- 
turned by those nearest at hand ; and a small knot 
of inquisitive idlers, come up to see what and 
whence we are, soon thickens into a dense circle. 
Many questions are asked, first of our conductor, 
Djedey', and next of ourselves; our answers are 
tolerably laconic. Meanwhile a thin, middle-sized 
individual, whose countenance bears the type of 
smiling urbanity and precise etiquette, befitting his 
ofiice at court, approaches us. His neat and simple 
dress, the long silver-circled staff in his hand, his 
respectful salutation, his politely important manner, 
all denote him one of the palace retinue. It is 
Seyf, the court chamberlain, whose special duty is 
the reception and presentation of strangers. We 
rise to receive him, and are greeted with a decorous, 
* Peace be with you, brothers,' in the fullness of 
every inflection and accent that the most scrupulous 
grammarian could desire. We return an equally 
Priscianic salutation. ' Whence have you come ? 



LIFE IN HA' TEL. 149 

may good attend you!' is the first question. Of 
course we declare ourselves physicians from Syria, 
for our bulkier wares had been disposed of in the 
Djowf, and we were now resolved to depend on 
medical practice alone. ' And what do you desire 
here in our town ? may God grant you success !' 
says Seyf. ' We desire the favor of God most high, 
and, secondly, that of Telal,' is our answer, con- 
forming our style to the correctest formulas of the 
country, which we had already begun to pick up. 
Whereupon Seyf, looking very sweet the while, be- 
gins, as in duty bound, a little encomium on his 
master's generosity and other excellent qualities, 
and assures us that we have exactly reached right 
quarters. 

" But alas ! while my comrade and myself were 
exchanging side-glances of mutual felicitation at 
such fair beginnings, Nemesis suddenly awoke to 
claim her due, and the serenity of our horizon was 
at once overcast by an unexpected and most unwel- 
come cloud. My readers are doubtless already 
aware that nothing was of higher importance for us 
than the most absolute incognito, above all in what- 
ever regarded European origin and character. In 
fact, once known for Europeans, all intimate access 
and sincerity of intercourse with the people of the 
land would have been irretrievably lost, and our on- 
ward progress to Nedjed rendered totally impossible. 
These were the very least inconveniences that could 
follow such a detection ; others much more disagree- 
able might also be well apprehended. Now thus 
far nothing had occurred capable of exciting serious 



150 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

suspicion ; no one had recognized us, or pretended 
to recognize. We, too, on our part, had thought 
that Gaza, Ma'an, and perhaps the Djowf, were the 
only localities where this kind of recognition had to 
be feared. But we had reckoned without our host ; 
the first real danger was reserved for Ha'jel, within 
the very limits of Nedjed, and with all the desert- 
belt between us and our old acquaintances. 

"For while Seyf was running through the pre- 
liminaries of his politeness, I saw to my horror 
amid the circle of bystanders a figure, a face well 
known to me scarce six months before in Damascus, 
and well known to many others also, now merchant, 
now trader, now post-contractor, shrewd, enter- 
prising and active, though nigh fifty years of age, 
and intimate with many Europeans of considerable 
standing in Syria and Bagdad — one, in short, ac- 
customed to all kinds of men, and not to be easily 
imposed on by any. 

" While I involuntarily stared dismay on my 
friend, and yet doubted if it could possibly be he, 
aU incertitude was dispelled by his cheerful salu- 
tation, in the confidential tone of an old acquaint- 
ance, followed by wondering inquiries as to what 
wind had blown me hither, and what I meant to do 
here in Ha'yel. 

" Wishing him most heartily — somewhere else, I 
had nothing for it but to ' fix a vacant stare,' to give 
a formal return of greeting, and then silence. 

"But misfortunes never come single. While I 
was thus on my defensive against so dangerous an 
antagonist in the person of my free and easy friend, 



LIFE IN HA'YEL. 151 

lo! a tall, sinister-featured individual comes up, 
clad in the dress of an inhabitant of Kaseem, and 
abruptly breaks in with, * And I too have seen him 
at Damascus,' naming at the same time the place 
and date of the meeting, and specifying exactly the 
circumstances most calculated to set me down for a 
genuine European. 

" Had he really met me as he said ? I cannot 
precisely say ; the place he mentioned was one 
whither men, half spies, half travellers, and whole 
intriguers from the interior districts, nay, even from 
Nedjed itself, not unfrequently resort ; and, as I my- 
self was conscious of having paid more than one 
visit there, my officious interlocutor might very 
possibly have been one of those present on some 
such occasion. So that although I did not now re- 
cognize him in particular, there was a strong in- 
trinsic probability in favor of his ill-timed veracity ; 
and his thus coming in to support the first witness 
in his assertions, rendered my predicament, already 
unsafe, yet worse. 

" But ere I could frame an answer or resolve what 
course to hold, up came a third, who, by overshoot- 
ing the mark, put the game into our hands. He too 
salaams me as an old friend, and then, turning to 
those around, now worked up to a most extraor- 
dinary pitch of amazed curiosity, says, ' And I also 
know him perfectly well ; I have often met him at 
Cairo, where he lives in great wealth in a large 
house near the Kasr-el-'Eynee ; his name is 'Abd- 
es-Saleeb ; he is married, and has a very beautiful 
daughter, who rides an expensive horse,' etc. 



152 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

"Here at last was a pure invention or mistake 
(for I know not which it was) that admitted of a 
flat denial. ' Aslahek Allah,' ' May Heaven set you 
right,' said I ; ' never did I hve at Cairo, nor have I 
the blessing of any horse-riding young ladies for 
daughters.' Then, looking very hard at my second 
detector, towards whom I had all the right of doubt, 
* I do not remember having ever seen you ; think 
well as to what you say ; many a man besides my- 
self has a reddish beard and straw-colored mus- 
taches,' taking pains however not to seem particu- 
larly ' careful to answer him in this matter,' but as 
if merely questioning the precise identity. But for 
the first of the trio I knew" not what to do or to re- 
ply, so I continued to look at him with a killing air 
of inquisitive stupidity, as though not fully under- 
standing his meaning. 

"But Seyf, though himself at first somewhat 
staggered by this sudden downpour of recognition, 
was now reassured by the discomfiture of the third 
witness, and came to the convenient conclusion that 
the two others were no better worthy of credit. 
' Never mind them,' exclaimed he, addressing him- 
self to us, ' they are talkative liars, mere gossipers ; 
let them alone, they do not deserve attention ; come 
along with me to the k'hawah in the palace, and 
rest yourselves.' Then turning to my poor Damas- 
cene friend, whose only wrong was to have been 
over-much in the right, he sharply chid him, and 
next the rest, and led us off, most glad to follow the 
leader, through the narrow and dark portal into the 
royal residence. 



LIFE IN BATEL. 153 

" Here we remained whilst coffee was, as wont, 
prepared and served. Seyf, who had left us awhile, 
now came back to say that Telal would soon return 
from his afternoon walk in a garden where he had 
been taking the air, and that if we would pass into 
the outer court we should then and there have the 
opportunity of paying him our introductory respects. 
He added that we should afterwards find our supper 
ready, and be provided also with good lodgings for 
the night ; finally, that the* k'hawah and what it 
contained were always at our disposition so long as 
we should honor Ha'yel by our presence. 

" We rose accordingly and returned with Seyf to 
the outside area. It was fuller than ever, on account 
of the expected appearance of the monarch. A 
few minutes later we saw a crowd approach from 
the upper extremity of the place, namely, that 
towards the market. When the new-comers drew 
near, we saw them to be almost exclusively armed 
men, with same of the more important-looking citi- 
zens, but all on foot. In the midst of this circle, 
though detached from those around them, slowly 
advanced three personages, whose dress and de- 
portment, together with the respectful distance ob- 
served by the rest, announced superior rank. ' Here 
comes Telal,' said Seyf, in an undertone. 

" The midmost figure was in fact that of the 
prince himself. Short of stature, broad-shouldered, 
and strongly built, of a very dusky complexion, 
with long black hair, dark and piercing eyes, and a 
countenance rather severe than open, Telal might 
readily be supposed above forty years in age, though 



154 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

he is in fact thirty-seven or thirty-eight at most. 
His step was measured, his demeanor grave and 
somewhat haughty. His dress, a long robe of 
Cachemire shawl, covered the white Arab shirt, and 
over all he wore a delicately worked cloak of camel's 
hair from Oman, a great rarity, and highly valued 
in this part of Arabia. His head was adorned by 
a broidered handkerchief, in which silk and gold 
thread had not been spared, and girt by a broad 
band of camel's hair entwined with red silk, the 
manufacture of Meshid 'Alee. A gold-mounted 
sword hung by his side, and his dress was perfumed 
with musk, in a degree better adapted to Arab than 
to European nostrils. His glance never rested for 
a moment ; sometimes it turned on his nearer com- 
panions, sometimes on the crowd ; I have seldom 
seen so truly an * eagle eye,' in rapidity and in bril- 
liancy. 

"By his side walked a tall, thin individual, clad in 
garments of somewhat less costly material, but of 
gayer colors and embroidery than those of the king 
himself. His face announced unusual intelligence 
and courtly politeness ; his sword was not, however, 
adorned with gold, the exclusive privilege of the 
I'oyal family, but with silver only. 

This was Zamil, the treasurer and prime minister 
— sole minister, indeed, of the autocrat. Raised 
from beggary by Abdallah, the late king, who had 
seen in the ragged orphan signs of rare capacity, he 
continued to merit the uninterrupted favor of his 
patron, and after his death had become equally, or 
yet more dear to Telal, who raised him from post 



LIFE IN HA TEL. 155 

to post till he at last occupied the highest position 
in the kingdom after the monarch himself. Of the 
demurely smiling Abd-el-Mahsin, the second com- 
panion of the king's evening walk, I will say nothing 
for the moment ; we shall have him before long for 
a very intimate acquaintance and a steady friend. 

" Every one stood up as Telal drew nigh. Seyf 
gave us a sign to follow him, made way through the 
crowd, and saluted his sovereign with the authorized 
formula of ' Peace be with you, O the Protected of 
God !' Telal at once cast on us a penetrating 
glance, and addressed a question in a low voice to 
Seyf, whose answer was in the same tone. The 
prince then looked again towards us, but with a 
friendlier expression of face. We approached and 
touched his open hand, repeating the same saluta- 
tion as that used by Seyf. No bow, hand-kissing, 
or other ceremony is customary on these occasions. 
Telal returned our greeting, and then, without a 
word more to us, whispered a moment to Seyf, and 
passed on through the palace gate. 

" ' He will give you a private audience to-morrow,' 
said Seyf, ' and I will take care that you have notice 
of it in due time ; meanwhile come to supper.' The 
sun had already set when we re-entered the palace. 
This time, after passing the arsenal, we turned aside 
into a large square court, distinct from the former, 
and surrounded by an open veranda, spread with 
mats. Two large ostriches, presents offered to Telal 
by some chiefs of the Solibah tribe, strutted about 
the enclosure, and afforded much amusement to the 
negro boys and scullions of the establishment. Seyf 



156 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

conducted us to the further side of the court, where 
we seated ourselves under the portico. 

" Hither some black slaves immediately brought 
the supper ; the ' piece de resistance ' was, as usual, a 
huge dish of rice and boiled meat, with some thin 
cakes of unleavened bread and dates, and small 
onions with chopped gourds intermixed. The 
cookery was better than what we had heretofore 
ta-sted, though it would, perhaps, have hardly passed 
muster with a Vatel. We made a hearty meal, took 
coffee in the k'hawah, and then returned to sit 
awhile and smoke our pipes in the open air. Needs 
not say how lovely are the summer evenings, how 
oool the breeze, how pure the sky, in these moun- 
tainous districts." 

Palgrave gives a historical sketch of the rise of 
Prince Telal to a position of power and importance 
in Central Arabia, scarcely secondary to that of the 
Wahabee ruler of Nedjed, The region of Djebel 
Shomer was subjected to the Wahabee rule during 
the last century, and the severe discipline of the new 
creed was forced upon its inhabitants. But, after 
the taking of Derreyeh by Ibrahim Pasha, the peo- 
ple regained a partial independence, and a rivalry 
for the chieftainship ensued between the two noble 
houses of Djaaper and Beyt Alee. The leader of the 
former was a young man named Abdallah, of more 
than ordinary character and intelligence, wealthy 
and popular. But he was defeated in the struggle, 
and about the year 1820 was driven into exile. 

With a small band of followers he reached the 
Wady Sirhan, (traversed by Palgrave on his way to 



LHE m HA' TEL. 157 

tlie Djowf,) where tliey were attacked b}^ the Aney- 
zeh Bedouins, all the rest slain, and Abdallah left 
for dead on the sands. The Arab story is that the 
locusts came around them, scattered the sand with 
their wings and feet upon his wounds and thus 
stopped the flow of blood, while a flock of partridges 
hung above him to screen him from the burning sun. 
A merchant of Damascus, passing by with his cara- 
van, beheld the miracle, took the youth, bound up 
his wounds, and restored him to health by the most 
tender care. When he had recovered his vigor in 
Damascus, the generous merchant sent him back to 
Arabia. 

He went first to the Nedjed, entered the service of 
the Wahabee chief, rose to high military rank, and 
finally, by his own personal bravery, secured the 
sovereignty to Feysul, the present ruler. The latter 
then gave him an army to recover his heritage of 
Djebel Shomer, and about the year 1830, his sway 
was secured in his native country. The rival clan 
of Beyt Alee was extirpated, only one child being 
left, whom Telal' afterwards, with a rare but pohtic 
generosity, restored to wealth and honors. 

Abdallah took every means to strengthen his pow- 
er. He found it necessary, through his dependence 
on Feysul, to establish the Wahabee creed ; he used 
the Bedouins as allies, in order to repress the rival- 
ry of the nobles, and thus gained power at the ex- 
pense of popularity. Many plots were formed 
against him, many attempts made to assassinate 
him, but they all failed : his lucky star attended 
him throughout. Up to this time he had dwelt 



158 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

in a quarter of the capital which the old chief- 
tains and the nobility had mainly chosen for their 
domicile, and where the new monarch was surround- 
ed by men his equals in birth and of even more an- 
cient title to command. But now he added a new 
quarter to the town, and there laid the foundations 
of a vast palace destined for the future abode of the 
king and the display of all his grandeur, amid 
streets and nobles of his own creation. The walls of 
the projected edifice were fast rising when he died, 
almost suddenly, in 1844 or 1845, leaving three sons, 
Telal, Meta'ab, and Mohammed, the eldest scarce 
twenty years of age, besides his only surviving bro- 
ther 'Obeyd, who could not then have been much 
under fifty. 

"Telal was already highly popular," says Pal- 
grave, " much more so than his father, and had giv- 
en early tokens of those superior qualities which 
accompanied him to the throne. All parties united 
to proclaim him sole heir to the kingdom and lawful 
successor to the regal power, and thus the rival pre- 
tensions of 'Obeyd, hated by many and feared by 
all, were smothered at the outset and put aside with- 
out a contest. 

" The young sovereign possessed, in fact, all that 
Arab ideas require to ensure good government and 
lasting popularity. Affable towards the common 
people, reserved and haughty with the aristocracy, 
courageous and skillful in war, a lover of commerce 
and building in time of peace, liberal even to profu- 
sion, yet always careful to maintain and augment 
the state revenue, neither over-strict nor yet scan- 



LIFE IN EA'YEL. 159 

dalously lax in religion, secret in his designs, but 
never known to break a promise once given, or vio- 
late a plighted faith ; severe in administration, yet 
averse to bloodshed, he offered the very type of what 
an Arab prince should be. I might add, that among 
all rulers or governors, European or Asiatic, with 
whose acquaintance I have ever chanced to be hon- 
ored, I know few equal in the true art of govern- 
ment to Telal, son of 'Abdallah-ebn-Easheed. 

" His first cares were directed to adorn and civi- 
lize the capital. Under his orders, enforced by per- 
sonal superintendence, the palace commenced by his 
father was soon brought to completion. But he 
added, what probably his father would hardly have 
thought of, a long row of warehouses, the dependen- 
cies and property of the same palace ; next he built 
a market-place consisting of about eighty shops or 
magazines, destined for public commerce and trade, 
and lastly constructed a large mosque for the official 
prayers of Friday. Round the palace, and in many 
other parts of the town, he opened streets, dug 
wells, and laid out extensive gardens, besides 
strengthening the old fortifications all round and 
adding new ones. At the same time he managed to 
secure at once the fidelity and the absence of his 
dangerous uncle by giving him charge of those mil- 
itary expeditions which best satisfied the restless 
energy of 'Obeyd. The first of these wars was 
directed, I know not on what pretext, against Khey- 
bar. But as Telal intended rather to enforce sub- 
mission than to inflict ruin, he associated with 
'Obeyd in the military command his own brother 



160 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

Meta'ab, to put a check on the ferocity of the for- 
mer. Kheybar was conquered, and Telal sent thith- 
er, as governor in his name, a young man of Ha'yel, 
prudent and gentle, whom I subsequently met when 
he was on a visit at the capital. 

" Not long after, the inhabitants of Kaseem, 
weary of Wahabee tyranny, turned their eyes 
towards Telal, who had already given a generous 
and inviolable asylum to the numerous political ex- 
iles of that district. Secret negotiations took place, 
and at a favorable moment the entire uplands of that 
province — after a fashion not indeed peculiar to 
Arabia — annexed themselves to the kingdom of Sho- 
mer by universal and unanimous suffrage. Telal 
made suitable apologies to the Nedjean monarch, 
the original sovereign of the annexed district ; he 
could not resist the popular wish ; it had been forced 
on him, etc., — but Western Europe is familiar with 
the style. Feysul felt the inopportuneness of a quar- 
rel with the rapidly growing power to which he him- 
self had given origin only a few years before, and, 
after a wry face or two, swallowed the pill. Meanwhile 
Telal knowing the necessity of a high military repu- 
tation, both at home and abroad, undertook in per- 
son a series of operations against Teyma' and its 
neighborhood, and at last against the Djowf itself. 
Everywhere his arms were successful, and his mod- 
eration in victory secured the attachment of the van- 
quished themselves. 

" Towards his own subjects his conduct is uni- 
formly of a nature to merit their obedience and at- 
tachment, and few sovereigns have here met with 



LIFE IN HA' TEL, 161 

better success. Once a day, often twice, he gives 
public audience, bears patiently, and decides in per- 
son, the minutest causes with great good sense. To 
the Bedouins, no insignificant portion of his rule, he 
makes up for the restraint he imposes, and the trib- 
ute he levies from them, by a profusion of hospital- 
ity not to be found elsewhere in the whole of Arabia 
from Akabah to Aden. His guests at the midday 
and evening meal are never less than fifty or sixty, 
and I have often .counted up to two hundred at a 
banquet, while presents of dress and arms are of fre- 
quent if not daily occurrence. It is hard for Europe- 
ans to estimate how much popularity such conduct 
brings an Asiatic prince. Meanwhile the townsfolk 
and villagers love him for the more solid advantages 
of undisturbed peace at home, of flourishing com- 
merce, of extended dominion, and military glory. 

" To capital punishment he is decidedly adverse, 
and the severest penalty with which he has hitherto 
chastised political offences is banishment or prison. 
Indeed, even in cases of homicide or murder, he has 
been known not unfrequently to avail himself of the 
option allowed by Arab custom between a fine and 
retaliation, and to buy off the offender, by bestowing 
on the family of the deceased the allotted price of 
blood from his own private treasury, and that from 
a pure motive of humanity. When execution does 
take place, it is always by beheading ; nor is indeed 
any other mode of putting to death customary in 
Arabia. Stripes however are not uncommon, though 
administered on the broad back, not on the sole of 
the foot. They are the common chastisement foa: 



162 TBAVELS IN ABABIA. 

minor offences, like stealing, cursing, or quarreling ; 
in this last case both parties usually come in for 
their share. 

" With his numerous retainers he is almost over- 
indulgent, and readily pardons a mistake or a negli- 
gence ; falsehood alone he never forgives ; and it is 
notorious that whoever has once lied to Telal must 
give up all hopes of future lavor." 

After describing the public audience which is 
daily given by this excellent prince, Palgrave des- 
cribes the more private reception which was accord- 
ed to himself and his companion : 

"Telal, once free from the mixed crowd, pauses a 
moment till we rejoin him. The simple and cus- 
tomary salutations are given and returned. I then 
present him with our only available testimonial, the 
scrap written by Hamood from the Djowf. He 
opens it, and hands it over to Zamil, better skilled 
in reading than his master. Then laying aside all 
his wonted gravity, and assuming a good-humored 
smile, he takes my hand in his right and my com- 
panion's in his left, and thus walks on with us 
through the court, past the mosque, and down the 
market-place, while his attendants form a moving 
wall behind and on either side. 

" He was in his own mind thoroughly persuaded 
that we were, as we appeared, Syrians ; but imag- 
ined, nor was he entirely in the wrong thus far, that 
we had other objects in view than mere medical 
practice. But if he was right in so much, he was 
less fortunate in the interpretation he chose to put 
on our riddle, having imagined that our real scope 



LIFE IN EAYEL. 



163 



must be to buy horses for some government, of 
which we must be the agents ; a conjecture which 
had certainly the merit of plausibihty. However, 
Telal had, I beHeve, no doubt on the matter, and 
had already determined to treat us well in the horse 
business, and to let us have a good bargain, as it 
shortly appeared. 

" Accordingly he began a series of questions and 
cross-questions, all in a jocose way, but so that the 
very drift of his inquiries soon allowed us to per- 
ceive what he really esteemed us. We, following 
our previous resolution, stuck to medicine, a family 
in want, hopes of good success under the royal pa- 
tronage, and much of the same tenor. But Telal 
was not so easily to be blinkered, and kept to his 
first judgment. Meanwhile we passed down the 
street, lined with starers at the king and us, and at 
last arrived at the outer door of a large house near 
the farther end of the Sook or market-place ; it 
belonged to Hasan, the merchant from Meshid 
'Alee. 

" Three of the retinue stationed themselves by 
way of guard at the street door, sword in hand. 
The rest entered with the king and ourselves ; we 
traversed the courtyard, where the remainder of the 
armed men took position, while we went on to the 
k'hawah. It was small, but well furnished and 
carpeted. Here Telal placed us amicably by his 
side in the highest place ; his brother Mohammed 
and five or six others were admitted, and seated 
themselves each according to his rank, while Hasan, 
being master of the house, did the honors. 



164 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

" Coffee was brought and pipes lighted. Mean- 
time Ebn-Rasheed renewed his interrogatory, skill- 
fully throwing out side remarks, now on the govern- 
ment of Syria, now on that of Egypt, then on the 
Bedouins to the north of Djowf, or on the tribes of 
Hedjaz or on the banks of the Euphrates, thus to 
gain hght whence and to what end we had in fact 
come. Next he questioned us on medicine, perhaps 
to discover whether we had the right professional 
tone ; then on horses, about which same noble ani- 
mals we affected an ignorance unnatural and very 
unpardonable in an Enghshman ; but for which I 
hope afterwards to make amends to my readers. 
All was in vain ; and after a full hour our noble 
friend had only managed by his cleverness to get 
himself farther off the right track than he had been 
at the outset. He felt it, and determined to let 
matters have their own course, and to await the re- 
sult of time. So he ended by assuring us of his 
entire confidence and protection, offering us to boot 
a lodging on the palace grounds. But this we de- 
clined, being desirous of studying the country as it 
was in itself, not through the medium of a court aty 
mosphere ; so we begged that an abode might be 
assigned us as near the market-place as possible; 
and this he promised, though evidently rather put 
out by our independent ways. 

"Excellent water-melons, ready peeled and cut 
up, with peaches hardly ripe, for it was the be- 
ginning of the season, were now brought in, and 
we all partook in common. This was the signal for 
breaking up ; Telal renewed his proffers of favor 



LIFE IN HAYEL. 165 

and patronage ; and we were afc last reconducted to 
our lodgings by one of the royal guard. 

" Seyf now went in search of a permanent dwell- 
ing-place wherein to install us ; and before evening 
succeeded in finding one situated in a street leading 
at right angles to the market, and at no unreason- 
able distance from the palace. The house itself 
consisted of two apartments, separated by an un- 
roofed court, with an outer door opening on the 
road ; over the rooms was a flat roof surrounded 
by a very high parapet, thus making an excellent 
sleeping-place for summer. The locality had been 
occupied by one of the palace retinue, Koseyn-el- 
Misree, who at Seyf's bidding evacuated the pre- 
mises in our favor, and moved off to take up his 
quarters in the neighborhood. We examined the 
dwelling-place, and found it tolerably convenient ; 
the rooms were each about sixteen feet in length by 
eight or nine in breadth, and of corresponding 
height ; one of them might officiate as a store-room 
and kitchen, while the other should be fitted up for 
a dwelling apartment. It was the zenith of the dog- 
days, and a bed-chamber would have been a mere 
superfluity ; the roof and open air were every way 
preferable, nor liad we to fear intrusion, the court- 
walls being sixteen feet high or more. Every door 
was provided with its own distinct lock ; the keys 
here are made of iron, and in this respect Ha'yel 
has the better of any other Arab town it was my 
chance to visit, where the keys were invariably 
wooden, and thus very liable to break and get out 
of order. 



I 



166 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

" The courtyard was soon thronged with visitors, 
some from the palace, others from the town. One 
had a sick relation, whom he begged us to come and 
see, another some personal ailment, a third had 
called out of mere politeness or curiosity ; in short 
men of all conditions and of all ages, but for 
the most part open and friendly in manner, so that 
we could already anticipate a very speedy acquaint- 
ance with the town and whatever it contained. 

" The nature of our occupations now led to a cer- 
tain daily routine, though it was often agreeably di- 
versified by incidental occurrences. Perhaps a leaf 
taken at random from my journal, now regularly 
kept, may serve to set before my readers a tolerable 
sample of our ordinary course of Hfe and society at 
Ha'yel, while it will at the same time give a more 
distinct idea of the town and people than we have 
yet supplied. It is, besides, a pleasure to retrace 
the memories of a pleasant time, and such on the 
whole was ours here ; and I trust that the reader 
will not be wholly devoid of some share in my feel- 
ings. 

"Be it, then, the 10th of August, whose jotted notes 
I will put together and fill up the blanks. I might 
equally have taken the 9th or the 11th, they are all 
much the same ; but the day I have chosen looks a 
little the closer written of the two, and for that sole 
reason I prefer giving it. 

" On that day, then, in 1862, about a fortnight 
after our establishment at Ha'yel, and when we were, 
in consequence, fully inured to our town existence, 
Seleem Abou Mahmood-el-'Eys and Barakat-esh- 



LIFE IN HAYEL. 167 

Shamee, that is, my companion and myself, rose, not 
from our beds, for we had none, but from our roof- 
spread carpets, and took advantage of the silent 
hour of the first faint dawn, while the stars yet kept 
watch in the sky over the slumbering inhabitants of 
Shomer, to leave the house for a cool and undis- 
turbed walk ere the sun should arise and man go 
forth unto his work and to his labor. We locked 
the outer door, and then passed into the still twi- 
light gloom down the cross-street leading to the 
market-place, which we next followed up to its 
farther or southwestern end, where large folding- 
gates separate it from the rest of the town. The 
wolfish city-dogs, whose bark and bite too render 
walking the streets at night a rather precarious bu- 
siness, now tamely stalked away in the gloaming, 
while here and there a crouching camel, the pack- 
ages yet on his back, and his sleeping driver close 
by, awaited the opening of the warehouse at whose 
door they had passed the night. Early though it 
was, the market-gates were already unclosed, and 
the guardian sat wakeful in his niche. On leaving 
the market we had yet to go down a broad street of 
houses and gardens cheerfully intermixed, till at last 
we reached the western wall of the town, or, rather, 
of the new quarter added by 'Abdallah, where the 
high portal between round flanking towers gave us 
issue on the open plain, blown over at this hour by 
a light gale of life and coolness. To the west, but 
some four or five miles distant, rose the serrated 
mass of Djebel Shomer, throwing up its black fan- 
tastic peaks, now reddened by the reflected dawn, 



1G8 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

against the lead-blue sky. Northward the same 
chain bends round till it meets the town, and then 
stretches away for a length of ten or twelve days' 
journey, gradually losing in height on its approach 
to Meshid 'Alee and the valley of the Euphrates. 
On our south we have a little isolated knot of rocks, 
and far off the extreme ranges of Djebel Shomer or 
'Aja, to give it its historical name, intersected by 
the broad passes that lead on in the same direction 
to Djebel Solma. Behind us lies the capital. 
Telal's palace, with its high oval keep, houses, gar- 
dens, walls, and towers, all coming out black against 
the ruddy bars of eastern light, and behind, a huge 
pyramidal peak almost overhanging the town, and 
connected by lower rocks with the main mountain 
range to north and south, those stony ribs that pro- 
tect the central heart of the kingdom. In the plain 
itself we can just distinguish by the doubtful twi- 
light several blackish patches irregularly scattered 
over its face, or seen as though leaning upward 
against its craggy verge ; these are the gardens and 
country-houses of 'Obeyd and other chiefs, besides 
hamlets and villages, such as Kefar and 'Adwah, 
with their groves of palm and 'Ithel>' (the Arab 
larch,) now blended in the dusk. One solitary 
traveller on his camel, a troop of jackals sneaking 
off to their rocky cavern, a few dingy tents of 
Shomer Bedouins, such are the last details of the 
landscape. Far away over the southern hills beams 
the glory of Canopus, and announces a new Arab 
year ; the pole-star to the north lies low over the 
mountain tops. 



LIFE IN HA TEL. 



169 



" We pace the pebble-strewn flat to the south, till 
we leave behind us the length of the town ^vall, and 
reach the little cluster of rocks already mentioned. 
We scramble up to a sort of niche near its summit, 
whence, at a height of a hundred feet or more, we 
can overlook the whole extent of the plain and wait 
the sunrise. Yet before the highest crags of 
Shomer are gilt with its first rays, or the long giant 
shadows of the easterly chain have crossed the 
level, we see groups of peasants, who drawing their 
fruit and vegetable-laden asses before them, issue 
like little bands of ants from the mountain gorges 
around, and slowly approach on the tracks converg- 
ing to the capital. Horsemen from the town ride 
out to the gardens, and a long line of camels on the 
westerly Medina road winds up towards Ha'yel. 
We wait ensconced in our rocky lookout and enjoy 
the view till the sun has risen, and the coolness of 
the night air warms rapidly into the sultry day ; it 
is time to return. So we quit our solitary perch, 
and descend to the plain, where, keeping in the 
shadow of the western fortifications, we regain the 
town gate and thence the market. 

" There, all is now life and movement ; some of the 
warehouses, filled with rice, flour, spices, or cofl'ee, 
and often concealing in their inner recesses stores 
of the prohibited American weed, are already open ; 
we salute the owners while we pass, and they return 
a polite and friendly greeting. Camels are unload- 
ing in the streets, and Bedouins standing by, look- 
ing anything but at home in the town. The shoe- 
maker and the blacksmith, those two main props of 



170 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. 

Arab liandicraft, are already at their work, and 
some gossiping bystanders are collected around 
them. At the corner where our cross-street falls 
into the market-place, three or four country women 
are seated, with piles of melons, gourds, egg-plant 
fruits, and the other garden produce before them for 
sale. My companion falls a haggling with one of 
these village nymphs, and ends by obtaining a 
dozen * badinjans ' and a couple of water-melons, 
each bigger than a man's head, for the equivalent 
of an English twopence. With this purchase we 
return home, where we shut and bolt the outer door, 
then take out of a flat basket what has remained 
from over night of our wafer-like Ha'yel bread, and 
with this and a melon make a hasty breakfast. I 
say a hasty one, for although it is only half an hour 
after sunrise, repeated knocks at our portal show 
the arrival of patients and visitors : early rising being 
here the fashion, and reason must wherever artifi- 
cial lighting is scanty. However, we do not at once 
open to our friends, nor will they take offence at the 
delay, but remain where they are, chatting together 
before our door till we admit them ; of so little value 
is time here. 

" In comes a young man of good appearance, clad 
in the black cloak common to all of the middle or 
upper classes in Central Arabia ; in his hand he 
bears a Avand of the Sidr or lotos-wood. A silver- 
hilted sword and a glistening Kafee'yah announce 
him to be a person of some importance, while his 
long black ringlets, handsome features and slightly 
olive complexion, with a tall stature and easy gait, 



LIFE IN HA' TEL. 171 

declare him native of Djebel Shomer, and townsman 
of Ha'yel ; it is 'Ojeyl, the eldest born of a large 
family, and successor to the comfortable house and 
garden of his father not long since deceased, in a 
quarter of the town some twenty minutes' walk dis- 
tant. He leads by the hand his younger brother, a 
modest looking lad of fair complexion and slim 
make, but almost blind, and evidently out of health 
also. After passing through the preliminary cere- 
monies of introduction to Barakat, he approaches 
my recess, and standing without, salutes me with 
the greatest deference. Thinking him a desirable 
acquaintance, I receive him very graciously, and he 
begs me to see what is the matter with his brother. 
I examine the case, finding it to be within the limits 
of my skill, and not likely to require more than a 
ver3^ simple course of treatment. Accordingly I 
make my bargain for the chances of recovery, and 
find 'Ojeyl docile to the terms proposed, and with 
little disposition, all things considered, to back- 
wardness in payment. Arabs, indeed, are in gen- 
eral close in driving a bargain and open in down- 
right giving ; they will chaifer half a day about a 
penny, while they will throw away the worth of 
pounds on the first asker. But 'Ojeyl was one of 
the best specimens of the Ha'yel character, and of 
the clan Ta'i, renowned in all times for their liberal 
ways and high sense of honor. I next proceed to 
administer to my patient such drugs as his state re- 
quires, and he receives them with that air of abso- 
lute and half religious confidence which well-edu- 
cated Arabs show to their physician, whom they 



172 TRAVELS m ARABIA. 

regard as possessed of an almost sacred and super- 
natural power — a feeling, bj the way, hardly less 
advantageous to the patient than to the practitioner, 
and which may often contribute much to the suc- 
cess of the treatment. 

" During the rest of my stay at Ha'yel, 'Ojeyl 
continued to be one of my best friends, I had 
almost said disciples ; our mutual visits were fre- 
quent, and always pleasing and hearty. His 
brother's cure, which followed in less than a fort- 
night, confirmed his attachment, nor had I reason 
to complain of scantiness in his retribution. 

" Meanwhile the courtyard has become full o£ vis- 
itors. Close by my door I see the intelhgent and 
demurely-smiling face of 'Abd-el-Mahsin, where he 
sits between two pretty and well-dressed boys ; they 
are the two elder children of Telal, Bedr and Ban- 
der ; their guardsmen, a negro slave with a hand- 
some cloak and sword, is seated a little lower down. 
Farther on are two townsmen, one armed, the other 
with a wand at his side. A rough good-natured 
youth of a bronzed complexion, and whose dingy 
clothes bespeak his mechanical profession, is talking 
with another of a dress somewhat different in form 
and coarser in material than that usually worn in 
Ha'yel ; this latter must be a peasant from some 
one of the mounta-iu villages. Two Bedouins, 
ragged and uncouth, ha^ve straggled in with the rest ; 
while a tall, dark-featured youth, with a gilded hilt 
to his sword, and more silk about him than a Wa- 
habee would approve, has taken his place opposite 
to 'Abd-el-Mahsin, and is trying to draw him into- 



LIFE m HA'YEL. 173 

conversation. But this last has asked Barakat to 
lend him one of my Arabic books to read, and is 
deeply engaged in its perusal. 

'Ojeyl has taken leave, and I give the next turn of 
course to 'Abd-el-Mahsin. He informs me that Te- 
lal has sent me his two sons Bedr and Bander that 
I may examine their state of health, and see if they 
require doctoring. This is in truth a little stroke of 
policy on Telal's part, who kiiows equally with my- 
self that the boys are perfectly well and want noth- 
ing at all. But he wishes to give us a mark of his 
confidence, and at the same time to help us in estab- 
lishing our medical reputation in the town ; for 
though by no means himself persuaded of the reality 
of our doctoral title, he understands the expediency 
of saving appearances before the public. 

" Well, the children are passed in review with all 
the seriousness due to a case of heart complaint or 
brain fever, while at a \vmk from me, Barakat pre- 
pares in the kitchen a draught of cinnamon water, 
which, with sugar, named medicine for the occasion, 
pleases the young heirs of royalty and keeps up the 
farce ; 'Abd-el-Mahsin expatiating all the time to 
the bystanders on the wonderful skill with whicli I 
have at once discovered the ailments and their cure, 
and the small boys thinking that if this be medicine, 
they will do their best to be ill for it every day. 

" 'Abd-el-Mahsin now commits them to the negro, 
wbo, however, before taking them back to the pal- 
ace, has his O'wn story to tell of some personal ache, 
for whicli I prescribe without stipulating for pay- 
ment, since he belongs to the palace, where it is im- 



174 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

portant to have the greatest number of friends pos- 
sible, eveii on the back stairs. But 'Abd-el-Mahsin 
remains, reading, chatting, quoting poetry, and talk- 
ing history, recent events, natural philosophy, or 
medicine, as the case may be. 

" Let us now see some of the other patients. The 
gold-hilted swordsman has naturally a special claim 
on our attention. It is the son of B,osheyd, Telal's 
maternal uncle. His palace stands on the other 
side of the way, exactly opposite to our house ; and 
I will say nothing more of him for the present, 
intending to pay him afterwards a special visit, and 
thus become more thoroughly acquainted with the 
whole family. 

" Next let us take notice of those two townsmen 
who are conversing, or rather * chaffing,' together. 
Though both in plain apparel, and much alike in 
stature and features, there is yet much about them 
to distinguish the two ; one has a civilian look, the 
other a military. He of the wand is no less a per- 
sonage than Mohammod-el-Kadee, chief justice of 
Ha'yel, and of course a very important individual in 
the town. However his exterior is that of an elder- 
ly, unpretentious little man, and one, in spite of the 
proverb which attributes gravity to judges, very fond 
of a joke, besides being a tolerable representative 
of what may here be called the moderate party, nei- 
ther participating in the fanaticism of the Waha- 
bee, nor yet, like the most of the indigenous chiefs, 
hostile to Mahometanism ; lie takes his cue from the 
court direction and is popular with all factions 
because belonging properly to none. 



LIFE IN BAYEL. 175 

" He requires some medical treatment for himself, 
and more for his son, a big heavy lad with a swollen 
arm, who has accompanied him hither. Here too 
is a useful acquaintance, well up to all the scandal 
and small talk of the town, and willing to communi- 
cate it. Our visits were frequent, and I found his 
house well stored with books, partly manuscript, 
partly printed in Egypt, and mainly on legal or reli- 
gious subjects. 

" Of the country folks in the villages around, like 
Mogah, Delhemee'eh, and the rest, Mohammed-el- 
Kadee used to speak with a sort of half-contempt- 
uous pity, much like a Parisian talking of Low Bre- 
tons ; in fact, the difference between these rough 
and sturdy boors, and the more refined inhabitants 
of the capital, is, all due proportion allowed, no less 
remarkable here than in Europe itself. We will 
now let one of them come forward in his own behalf, 
and my readers shall be judges. 

"It is accordingly a stout clown from Mogah, 
scantily dressed in w^orking wear, and w^ho has been 
occupied for the last half hour in tracing sundry 
diagrams on the ground before him with a thick 
peach-tree switch, thus to pass his time till his bet- 
ters shall have been served. He now edges forward, 
and taking his seat in front of the door, calls my at- 
tention witli an * I say, doctor.' Whereon I suggest 
to him that his bulky corporation not being formed 
of glass or any other transparent material, he has 
by his position entirely intercepted whatever little 
light my recess might enjoy. He apologizes, and 
shuffles an inch or two sideways. Next I inquire 



176 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

what ails him, not without some curiosity to hear 
the answer, so httle does the herculean frame before 
me announce disease. Whereto Do'eymis, or what- 
ever may be his name, replies, ' I say, I am all made 
up of pain.' This statement, like many others, ap- 
pears to me rather too general to be exactly true. 
So I proceed in my interrogatory : *Does your head 
pain you ?' ' No.' (I might have guessed that ; 
these fellows never feel what our cross-Channel 
friends entitle ' le mal des beaux espritsJ) * Does 
your back ache ?' ' No.' * Your arms ?' * No.' 
'Your legs?' 'No.' 'Your body?' 'No.' 'But,' 
I conclude, ' if neither your head nor your body, 
back, arms, or legs pain you, how can you possibly 
be such a composition of suffering ?' ' I am all made 
up of pain, doctor,' replies he, manfully intrenching 
himself within his first position. The fact is, that 
there is really something wrong with him, but he 
does not know how to localize his sensations. So I 
push forward my inquiries, till it appears that our 
man of Mogah has a chronic rheumatism ; and on 
ulterior investigation, conducted with all the skill 
that Barakat and I can jointly muster, it comes out 
that three or four months before he had an attack of 
the disease in its acute form, accompanied by high 
fever, since which he has never been himself again. 
" This might suffice for the diagnosis, but I wish 
to see how he will find his way out of more intricate 
questions ; besides, the townsmen sitting by, and 
equally alive to the joke with myself, whisper, 
* Try him again.' In consequence, I proceed with, 
What was the cause of your first illness ?' ' I say, 



LIFE IN EAYEL, 177 

doctor, its cause was God,' replies the patient. ' No 
doubt of that,' say I ; 'all things are caused by 
God : but what was the particular and immediate 
occasion ? ' ' Doctor, its cause was God, and sec- 
ondly, that I ate camel's flesh when I was cold,' re- 
joins my scientific friend. * But was there nothing 
else ?' I suggest, not quite satisfied with the lucid 
explanation just given. ' Then, too, I drank camel's 
milk ; but it was all, I say, from God, doctor,' an- 
swers he. 

' Well, I consider the case, and make up my mind 
regarding the treatment. Next comes the grand 
question of payment, which must be agreed on 
beforehand, and rendered conditional on success ; 
else no fees for the docter, not at Ha'yel only, but 
throughout Arabia. I inquire what he will give me 
on recovery. * Doctor,' answers the peasant, ' I will 
give you, do you hear? I say, I will give you a 
camel.' But I reply that I do not want one. 'I 
say, remember God,' which being interpreted here 
means, ' do not be unreasonable ; I will give you a 
fat camel, every one knows my camel ; if you choose, 
I will bring witnesses, I say.' And while I persist 
in refusing the proffered camel, he talks of butter, 
meal, dates, and such like equivalents. 

"There is a patient and a paymaster for you. 
However, all ends by his behaving reasonably 
enough ; he follows my prescriptions with the ordi- 
nary docility, gets better,. and gives me for my pains 
an eighteenpenny fee." 

During this residence in Ha'yel, Palgrave made 
many friends, and soon established those relations 



178 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

of familiar intercourse whicli are so much easier in 
Moslem than in Christian lands, — a natural result of 
the preservation of the old importance, which in the 
earliest Hebrew days was attached to " the stran- 
ger." Palgrave's intimacies embraced many fami- 
lies related to Telal, and others, whose knowledge 
of Arabian history or literature made their acquain- 
tance welcome. His own knowledge of these sub- 
jects, fortunately, was equal to theirs, and, from 
the number of his invitations to dinners and sup- 
pers, he seems to have been a welcome guest to the 
better classes of Ha'yel. One of the aristocracy, by 
name Dohey, was his most agreeable acquaintance ; 
and wo quote the following pleasant account of his 
intercourse : 

" Dohey's invitations were particularly welcome, 
both from the pleasantness of his dwelHng-place, 
and from the varied and interesting conversation 
that I was sure to meet with there. This merchant, 
a tall and stately man of between fifty and sixty 
years of age, and whose thin features were lighted 
up by a lustre of more than ordinary intelligence, 
was a thorough Ha'yelite of the old caste, hating 
Wahabees from the bottom of his heart, eager for 
information on cause and effect, on lands and gov- 
ernments, and holding commerce and social life for 
the main props if not the ends of civil and national 
organization. His uncle, now near eighty years old, 
to judge by conjecture in a land where registers are 
not much in use, had journeyed to India, and 
traded at Bombay ; in token whereof he still wore 
an Indian skull-cap and a Cachemire shawl. The 



LIFE IN HA' TEL. 179 

rest of the family were in keeping with the elder 
members, and seldom have I seen more dutiful child- 
ren or a better educated household. Mj readers 
will naturally understand that by education I here 
imply its moral not its intellectual phase. The eld- 
est son, himself a middle-aged man, would never 
venture into his father's presence without unbuck- 
ling his sword and leaving it in the vestibule, nor on 
any account presume to sit on a level with him or 
by his side in the divan. 

" The divan itself was one of the prettiest I met 
with in these parts. It was a large square room, 
looking out on the large house-garden, and cheer- 
fully lighted up by trellised windows on two 
sides, while the wall of the third had purposely been 
discontinued at about half its height, and the open 
space thus left between it and the roof propped by 
pillars, between which ' a fruitful vine by the sides 
of the house ' was intertwined so as to fill up the in- 
terval with a gay network of green leaves and ten- 
drils, transparent like stained glass in the eastern 
sunbeams. Facing this cheerful hght, the floor of 
the apartment was raised about two feet above the 
rest, and covered with gay Persian carpets, silk cush- 
ions, and the best of Arab furniture. In the lower 
half of the k'hawah, and at its farthest angle, was 
the small stone coffee-stove, placed at a distance 
where its heat might not annoy the master and his 
guests. Many of the city nobility would here 
resort, and the talk generally turned on serious sub- 
jects, and above all on the parties and pohtics of 
Arabia ; while Dohey' would show himself a thor- 



180 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

ough Arab patriot, and at the same time a courteous 
and indulgent judge of foreigners, qualities seldom 
to be met with together in any notable degree, and 
therefore more welcome. 

" Many a pleasant hour have I passed in this half 
greenhouse, half k'hawah, mid cheerful faces and 
varied talk, while inly commenting on the natural 
resources of this manly and vigorous people, and 
straining the eye of forethought to discern through 
the misty curtain of the future by what outlet 
their now unfruitful because solitary good may be 
brought into fertilizing contact with that of other 
more advanced nations, to the mutual benefit of 
each and all. 

" Talk went on with the ease and decorum charac- 
teristic of good Eastern society, without the flippan- 
cy and excitement which occasionally mars it in 
some countries, no less than over-silence does in 
others. To my mind the Easterns are generally 
superior in the science of conversation to the inhab- 
itants of the West ; perhaps from a greater necessi- 
ty of cultivating it, as the only means of general 
news and intercourse where newspapers and pamph- 
lets are unknown. 

" Or else some garden was the scene of our after- 
noon leisure, among fruit trees and palms, by the 
side of a watercourse, whose constant supply from 
the well hid from view among thick foliage, seemed 
the work not of laborious art but of unassisted na- 
ture. Here, stretched in the cool and welcome 
shade, would we for hours canvass with 'Abd-el- 
Mahsin, and others of similar pursuits, the respect- 



LIFE IN HA TEL. 181 

ive merits of Arab poets and authors, of Omar-ebn- 
el-Farid or Aboo'l 'Ola, in meetings that had some- 
thing of the Attic, yet with just enough of the Arab 
to render them more acceptable by their Semitic 
character of grave cheerfulness and mirthful com- 
posure, 

" Or when the stars came out, Barakat and my- 
self would stroll out of the heated air of the streets 
and market to the cool open plain, and there pass an 
hour or two alone, or in conversation with what 
chance passer-by might steal on us half unperceived 
and unperceiving in the dusk, and amuse ourselves 
with his simplicity if he were a Bedouin, or with his 
shrewdness if a townsman. 

" Thus passed our ordinary life at Ha'yel. Many 
minor incidents occurred to diversify it, many of the 
little ups and downs that human intercourse never 
fails to furnish ; sometimes the number of patients 
and the urgency of their attendance allowed of little 
leisure for aught except our professional duties ; 
sometimes a day or two would pass with hardly 
any serious occupation. But of such incidents my 
readers have a sufficient sample in what has been 
already set down. Suffice to say, that from the 27th 
of July to the 8th of September we remained doc- 
toring in the capital or in its immediate neighbor- 
hood." 

By this time Palgrave had obtained sufficient 
knowledge of the country, and was anxious to 
advance further eastward before the autumn — the 
best season for travel — should be spent. Now the 
journey across the Shomer frontier could only be 



182 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

pursued with Telal's cognizance, and by his good 
will. In fact, a passport bearing the royal signa- 
ture is indispensable for all who desire to cross the 
boundary, especially into the Wahabee territory ; 
without such a document in hand no one would ven- 
ture to conduct them. 

" Accordingly,*' he says, *' we requested and ob- 
tained a special audience at the palace. Telal, of 
whose good will we had received frequent, indeed 
daily proofs during our sojourn at Ha'yel, proved a 
sincere friend — patron would be a juster word — to 
the last ; exemplifying the Scotch proverb about 
the guest not only who ' will stay,' but also who 
*maun gang.' To this end he then dictated to 
Zamil, for Telal himself is no scribe, a passport or 
general letter of safe conduct, enough to ensure us 
good treatment within the limits of his rule, and 
even beyond. 

" When this was written, Telal affixed his seal, 
and rose to leave us alone with Zamil, after a part- 
ing shake of the hand, and wishing us a prosperous 
journey and speedy return. Yet with all these mo- 
tives for going, I could not but feel reluctant to quit 
a pleasing town, where we certainly possessed many 
sincere friends and well-wishers, for countries in 
which we could by no means anticipate equal favor 
or even equal safety. Indeed so ominous was all 
that we heard about Wahabee Nedjed, so black did 
the landscape before us look, on nearer approach, 
that I almost repented of my resolution, and was 
considerably inclined to say, ' Thus far enough, 
and no farther.' 



LIFE IN HAYEL. 183 

" 'Obeyd, Telal's uncle, had left Ha'jel the day 
before on a military expedition against the Bedou- 
ins of the West. In common with all the sight- 
seers of the town, we had gone to witness his de- 
parture. It was a gay and interesting scene. 
'Obeyd had caused his tent to be pitched in the 
plain without the northern walls, and there re- 
viewed his forces. About one third were on horse- 
back, the rest were mounted on light and speedy 
camels ; all had spears and matchlocks, to which 
the gentry added swords ; and while they rode 
hither and thither in sham manoeuvres over the pa- 
rade ground, the whole appearance was very pictur- 
esque and tolerably martial. 'Obeyd now unfurled 
his own peculiar standard, in which the green color, 
distinctive of Islam, had been added border- wise to 
the white ground of the ancestral Nedjean banner, 
mentioned fourteen centuries back by 'Omar-ebn- 
Kelthoom, the poet of Taghleb, and many others. 
Barakat and myself mixed with the crowd of spec- 
tators. 'Obeyd saw us, and it was now several 
days since we had last met. Without hesitating he 
cantered up to us, and while he tendered his hand 
for a farewell shake, he said : ' I have heard that 
you intend going to Ri'ad ; there you will meet 
with 'Abdallah, the eldest son of Feysul; he is 
my particular friend ; I should much desire to see 
you high in his good graces, and to that end I have 
written him a letter in your behalf, of which you 
yourselves are to be the bearers ; you will find it in 
my house, where 1 have left it for you with one of 
my servants.' He then assured us that if he 



184 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

tound us still at Ha'^^el on his return, he would 
continue to befriend us in every way ; but that if 
we journeyed forward to Nedjed, we should meet 
with a sincere friend in 'Abdallah, especially if we 
gave him the letter in question. 

."He then took his leave with a semblance of 
affectionate cordiality that made the bystanders 
stare ; thus supporting to the last the profound dis- 
simulation which he had only once belied for a mo- 
ment. The letter was duly handed over to us the 
same afternoon by his head steward, whom he had 
left to look after the house and garden in his ab- 
sence. Doubtless my readers will be curious to 
know what sort of recommendation 'Obeyd had 
provided us with. It was written on a small scrap 
of thick paper, about four inches each way, care- 
fully folded up and secured by three seals. How- 
ever, * our fears forgetting manners,' we thought 
best with Hamlet to make perusal of this grand 
commission before delivering it to its destination. 
So we undid the seals with precautions admitting of 
reclosing them in proper form, and read the royal 
knavery. I give it word for word ; it ran thus : 
'In the name of God the Merciful, the Compas- 
sionate, we, 'Obeyd-ebn-Rasheed, salute you, O 
Abdallah, son of Feysul-ebn-Sa'ood, and peace be 
on you, and the mercy of God and His blessings.' 
(This is the invariable commencement of all Wa- 
liabee epistles, to the entire omission of the compli- 
mentary formulas used by other Orientals.) * After 
which,' so proceeded the document, * we inform you 
that the bearers of this are one Seleem-el-'Eys, 



LIFE IN HA'YEL. 185 

and his comrade, Barakat-esh-Shamee, who give 
themselves out for having some knowledge in'— 
here followed a word of equivocal import, capable 
of interpretation alike by ' medicine ' or ^ magic,' 
but generally used in Nedjed for the latter, which is 
at Ri'ad a capital crime. ' Now may God forbid 
that we should hear of any evil having befallen 
you. We salute also your father, Feysul, and your 
brothers, and all your family, and anxiously await 
your news in answer. Peace be with you.' Here 
followed the signet impression. 

" A pretty recommendation, especially under the 
actual circumstances ! However, not content with 
this, 'Obeyd found means to transmit further infor- 
mation regarding us, and all in the same tenor, to 
Ki'ad, as we afterwards discovered. For his letter, 
I need hardly say that it never passed from our 
possession, where it yet remains as an interesting 
autograph, to that of 'Abdallah ; with whom it 
would inevitably have proved the one only thing 
wanting, as we shall subsequently see, to make us 
leave the forfeit of our lives in the Nedjean man- 
trap. 

'* Before evening three men knocked at our door ; 
they were our future guides. The eldest bore the 
name of Mubarek, and was a native of the suburbs 
of Bereydah ; all three were of the genuine Ka- 
seem breed, darker and lower in stature than the 
inhabitants of Ha'yel, but not ill-looking, and ex- 
tremely affable in their demeanor. Mubarek told 
us that their departure from Ha'yel had been at 
first fixed for the morro^y, or the 7th of the month, 



X86 TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

but that owing to some delay on the part of their 
companions, for the band was a large one, it had 
been subsequently put off to the 8fch, or the day 
after. 

" We had soon made all.necessai-y arrangements 
for our departure, got in a few scattered debts, 
packed up our pharmacopoeia, and nothini^ now re- 
mained but the pleasurable pain of farewells. They 
were many and mutually sincere. Meta'ab had 
indeed made his a few days before, when he a se- 
cond time left Ha'yel for the pastures; Telal we 
had already taken leave of, but there remained his 
younger brother Mohammed to give us a hearty 
adieu of good augury. Most of my old acquaint- 
ance or patients, Dohey' the merchant, Mohammed 
the judge, Doheym and his family, not forgetting 
our earliest friend Seyf the chamberlain, Sa'eed, 
the cavalry officer, and others of the court, freemen 
and slaves, white or black, (for negroes readily fol- 
low the direction indicated by their masters, and 
are not ungrateful if kindly treated while kept in 
their due position,) and many others of whose 
names Homer would have made a catalogue and I 
will not, heard of our near departure and came to 
express their regrets, with hopes of future meeting 
and return." 

" Early next morning, before day, Mubarek and 
another of his countrymen, named Dahesh, were at 
pur door with the camels. Some of our town 
friends had also come, even at this hour, to accom- 
pany us as far as the city gates. We mounted our 



LIFE IN HA'YEL. 187 

beasts, and while the first sunbeams streamed level 
over the plain, passed through the southwestern 
portal beyond the market-place, the 8th of Septem- 
ber, 1862^ and left the city of Ha'yel." 



CHAPTEE XII. 

PALGRAVE's travels. — JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH. 

ANOTHER stage of our way. From Gaza to 
Ma'an, from Ma' an to the Djowf, from the 
Djowf to Ha'yel, three such had now been gone 
over, not indeed without some fatigue or discomfort, 
yet at comparatively httle personal risk, except what 
nature herself, not man, might occasion. For to 
cross the stony desert of the northern frontier, or 
the sandy Nefood in the very height of summer, 
could not be said to be entirely free from danger, 
where in these waterless wastes thirst, if nothing 
else, may alone, and often does, suffice to cause the 
disappearance of the over-adventurous traveller, 
nay, even of many a Bedouin, no less effectually 
than a lance-thrust or a musket ball. But if nature 
had been so far unkind, of man at least we had 
hitherto not much to complain; the Bedouins on 
their route, however rough and uncouth in their 
ways, had, with only one exception, meant us fairly 
well, and the townsmen in general had proved 
friendly and courteous beyond our expectation. 
Once within the established government limits of 
Telal, and among his subjects, we had enjoyed our 



JOUBJ^EY TO BEREYDAH. 189 

share in the common security afforded to wayfarers 
and inhabitants for life and property, while good 
success had hitherto accompanied us. ' Judge of 
the day by its dawn,' say the Arabs ; and although 
this proverb, like all proverbs, does not always hold 
exactly true, whether for sunshine or cloud, yet it 
has its value at times. And thus, whatever unfavor- 
able predictions or dark forebodings our friends 
might hint regarding the inner Nedjed and its deni- 
zens, we trusted that so favorable a past augured 
somewhat better things for the future. 

" From physical and material difficulties like those 
before met with, there was henceforward much less 
to fear. The great heats of summer were past, the 
cooler seasons had set in ; besides, our path now lay 
through the elevated table-land of Central Arabia, 
whose northern rim we had already surmounted at 
our entrance on the Djebel Shomer. Nor did there 
remain any uncultivated or sandy track to cross 
comparable to the Nefood of Djowf between Ha'yel 
and Ri'ad ; on the contrary, we were to expect pas- 
ture lands and culture, villages and habitations, cool 
mountain air, and a sufficiency if not an abundance 
of water. Nor were our fellow companions now 
mere Bedouins and savages, but men from town or 
village life, members of organized society, and so 
far civilized beings. 

"When adieus, lookings back, wavings of the 
hand, and all the customary signs of farewell and 
good omen were over between our Ha'yel friends 
and ourselves, we pursued our road by the plain 
which I have already described as having been the 



190 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

frequent scene of our morning walks ; but instead 
of following the southwesterly path towards Kefar, 
whose groves and roof-tops now rose in a blended 
mass before us, we turned eastward, and rounded, 
though at some distance, the outer wall of Ha'yel 
for nearly half an hour, till we struck off by a south- 
easterly track across stony ground, diversified here 
and there by wells, each with a cluster of gardens 
and a few houses in its neighborhood. At last we 
reached a narrow winding pass among the cliffs of 
Bjebel'Aja', whose mid-loop encircles Ha'yel on all 
sides, and here turned our heads to take a last far- 
off view of what had been our home, or the agree- 
able semblance of a home, for several weeks. 

" Our only companions as yet were Mubarek and 
Dahesh. We had outstripped the rest, whose bag- 
gage and equipments had required a more tedious 
arrangement than our own. Before long they came 
up — a motley crew. Ten or thereabouts of the 
Kaseem, some from Bereydah itself, others from 
neighboring towns ; two individuals, who gave them- 
selves out, but with more asseveration than truth, to 
be natives of Mecca itself ; three Bedouins, two of 
whom belonged to the Shomer clan, the third an 
'Anezah of the north ; next a runaway negro, con- 
ducting four horses, destined to pass the whole 
breadth of Arabia, and to be shipped off at Koweyt, 
on the Ptrsian Gulf, for Indian sale ; two merchants, 
one from Zulphah, in the province of Sadeyr, the 
other from Zobeyr, near Bassora ; lastly, two women, 
wives of I know not exactly whom in the caravaD, 
with some small children ; all this making up, our- 



JOURNEY TO BEBEYDAE. 191 

selves included, a band of twenty- seven or twenty- 
eight persons, the most mounted on camels, a few 
on horseback, and accompanied by a few beasts of 
burden alongside — such was our Canterbury pil- 
grims' group. 

" Thus assembled, on we went together, now amid 
granite rocks, now crossing grassy valleys, till near 
sunset we stopped under a high cliff, at the extreme 
southerly verge of Djebel 'Aja', or, in modern par- 
lance, of Djebel Shomer. The mountain here ex- 
tended far away to right and left, but in front a 
wide plain of full twenty miles across opened out 
before us, till bounded southwards by the long 
bluish chain of Djebel Solma, whose line runs par- 
allel to the heights we were now to leave, and 
belongs to the same formation and rocky mass de- 
nominated in a comprehensive way the mountains 
of Ta'i or Shomer. 

" At about three in the afternoon, next day, we 
saw some way off to our west a troop of Bedouins 
coming up from the direction of Medina. While 
they were yet in the distance, and half hidden from 
view by the shrubs and stunted acacias of the plain, 
we could not precisely distinguish their numbers; 
but they were evidently enough to make us desire, 
with Orlando, ' that we might be better strangers.' 
On our side we mustered about fifteen matchlocks, 
besides a few spears and swords. The Bedouins 
had already perceived us, and continued to approach, 
though in the desultory and circuitous way which 
they affect when doubtful of the strength of their 



m 



192 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

opponent ; still tliej gained on us more than was 
pleasant. 

"Fourteen armed townsmen might stand for a 
reasonable match against double the number of 
Bedouins, and in any case we had certainlj^ nothing 
better to do than to put a bold face on the matter. 
The 'Ejoon chief, Foleyh, with two of his country- 
men and Ghashee, carefully primed their guns, and 
then set off at full gallop to meet the advancing 
enemy, brandishing their weapons over their heads, 
and looking extremely fierce. Under cover of this 
mancBuvre the rest of our band set about getting 
their arms ready, and an amusing scene ensued. 
One had lost his match, and was hunting for it in 
his housings, another in his haste to ram the bullet 
home had it stuck midway in the barrel, and could 
neither get it up nor down ; the lock of a third was 
rusty and would not do duty ; the women began to 
whine piteously ; the two Meccans, who for econo- 
my's sake were both riding one only camel, a cir- 
cumstance which caused between them many inter- 
national squabbles, tried to make their beast gallop 
off with them, and leave the others to their fate, 
while the more courageous animal, despising such 
cowardly measures, insisted on remaining with his 
companions and sharing their lot ; — all was thor- 
oughly Arab, much hubbub and little done. Had 
the menacing feint of the four who protected our 
rear proved insufficient, we might all have been in a 
very bad predicament, and this feeling drew every 
face with reverted gaze in a backward direction. 
But the Harb banditti, intimidated by the bold 



I 



JOURNEY TO BEREYDAK 193 

countenance of Foleyh and his companions, wheeled 
about and commenced a skirmishing retreat, in 
which a few shots, guiltless of bloodshed, were fired 
for form's sake on either side, till at last our assail- 
ants fairly disappeared in the remote valley. 

" Our valiant champions now returned from pur- 
suit, much elated with their success, and we jour- 
neyed on together, skirting the last rocky spur of 
Solma, close by the spot where Hatim Ta'i, the well 
known model, half mythic and half historical, of 
Arab hospitality and exagerated generosity, is said 
to be buried. Here we crossed some low hills that 
form a sort of offshoot to the Solma mountain, and 
limit the valley ; and the last rays of the setting 
sun gilding to our view, in a sandy bottom some way 
off, the palm trees of Feyd. 

" Feyd may be taken as a tolerable sample of the 
\illages met with throughout Northern or Upper 
Kaseem, for they all bear a close likeness in their 
main features, though various in size. Imagine a 
little sandy hillock of about sixty or seventy feet 
high, in the midst of a wide and dusty valley ; part 
of the eminence itself and the adjoining bottom is 
covered by low earth-built houses, intermixed with 
groups of the feathery ithel. The grounds in the 
neighborhood are divided by brick walls into green 
gardens, where gourds and melons, leguminous 
plants and maize, grow alongside of an artificial 
irrigation from the wells among them ; palms in 
plenty — they were now heavy laden with red-brown 
fruits ; and a few peach or apricot trees complete 
the general lineaments. The outer walls are low, 



194 TRAVELS m ARABIA. 

and serve more for the protection of the gardens 
than of the dwelhngs ; here are neither towers nor 
trenches, nor even, at least in many places, any 
central castle or distinguishable residence for the 
chief ; his habitation is of the same one-storied con- 
struction as those of his neighbors, only a little 
larger. Some of these townlets are quite recent, 
and date from the Shomer annexation, which gave 
this part of the province a degree of quiet and 
prosperity unknown under their former Wahabee 
rulers. 

" Next morning, the 10th of September, we were 
all up by moonlight, two or three hours before 
dawn, and off on our road to the southeast. The 
whole country that we had to traverse for the next 
four days was of so uniform a character, that a few 
words of description may here serve for the land- 
scape of this entire stage of our journey. 

" Upper Kaseem is an elevated plateau or steppe, 
and forms part of a long upland belt, crossing di- 
agonally the northern half of the peninsula ; one 
extremity reaches the neighborhood of Zobeyr and 
the Euphrates, while the other extends downwards 
to the vicinity of Medina. Its surface is in general 
covered with grass in the spring and summer sea- 
sons, and with shrubs and brushwood at all times, 
and thus affords excellent pasture for sheep and 
camels. Across it blows the fresh eastern gale, so 
celebrated in Arab poetry under the name of ^ Seba 
Nedjin,' or * Zephyr of Nedjed ' (only it comes from 
precisely the opposite corner to the Greek or Roman 
Zephyr), and continually invoked by sentimental 



JOURNEY TO BERETDALI. l^j 

bards to bring them news of imaginary loyes or 
pleasing reminiscences. No wonder ; for most of 
these versifiers being themselves natives of the bar- 
ren Hedjaz or the scorching Tehama, perhaps inhab- 
itants of Egypt and Syria, and knowing little of 
Arabia, except what they have seen on the dreary 
Meccan pilgrim road, they naturally look back to 
with longing, and frequently record, whatever 
glimpses chance may have allowed them of the 
cooler and more fertile highlands of the centre, de- 
nominated by them Nedjed, in a general way, with 
their transient experience of its fresh and invigor- 
ating climate, of its courteous men and sprightly 
maidens. 

" But when, nor is this seldom, the sweet smell of 
the aromatic thyme-like plants that here abound, 
mixes with the light morning breeze and enhances 
its balmy influence, then indeed can one excuse the 
raptures of an Arab Ovid or Theocritus, and appre- 
ciate — at least I often did — their yearnings after 
Nedjed, and all the praises they lavish on its 
memory. . 



• Then said I to my companion, while the camels were hastening 

To bear us down the pass between Meneefah and Demar, 

• Enjoy while thou canst the sweets of the meadows of Nedjed: 

With no such meadows and sweets shalt thou meet after this evening. 
Ah I heaven's blessing on the scented gales of Nedjed, 

And its greensward and groves glittering from the spring shower. 
And thy dear friends, when thy lot was cast awhile in Nedjed — 

Little hadat thou to complain of what the days brought thee ; 
Months flew past, they passed and we perceived not. 

Nor wbea their mooaa were new, uor when they waned.' " 

For three days more they travelled forward over 



196 TRAVELS IN AHABIA. ' 

this undulating table-land, making from sixty to 
seventy miles a day. The view was extensive, but 
rather monotonous. There were no high moun- 
tains, no rivers, no lakes, no deep valleys ; but a 
constant repetition of stony uplands, shallow and 
sandy hollows, and villages surrounded by belts of 
palm-groves, the extent and direction of which in- 
dicated the subterranean water-courses. 

On the third evening they reached Kowarah, the 
most southern station in Telal territory — a large 
village, lying in a wooded and well- watered hollow. 
Here they still found the order and security which 
that ruler has established, and maintains every- 
where throughout his dominions. Leaving the next 
morning, the Mth of September, they crossed a 
few low hills, came to a sudden dip in the general 
level of the country, and then the extent of South- 
ern Kaseem burst suddenly upon their view. 

"Now, for the first time," says Palgrave, "we 
could in some measure appreciate the strength of 
the Wahabee in his mastery over such a land. 
Before us to the utmost horizon stretched an im- 
mense plain, studded with towns and villages, 
towers and groves, all steeped in the dazzling noon, 
and announcing everywhere life, opulence, and ac- 
tivity. The average breadth of this populous dis- 
trict is about sixty miles, its length twice as 
much, or more ; it lies full two huiidred feet below 
the level of the uplands, which here break off like a 
wall. Fifty or more good sized villages and four or 
five large towns form the commercial and agricul- 
tural centres of the province, and its surface is 



I 



I 



JOUBNEY TO BERRYDAH. 197_ 

moreover thick strewn with smaller hamlets, iso- 
lated wells and gardens, and traversed bj a network 
of tracks in every direction. Here begin and hence 
extend to Djebel Toweyk itself, the series of high 
watch-towers that afford the inhabitants a means, 
denied otherwise by their level flats, of discerning 
from afar the approach of foray or invasion, and 
thus preparing for resistance. For while no part of 
Central Arabia has an older or a better established 
title to civilization or wealth, no part also has been 
the starting-point and theatre of so many wars, 
or witnessed the gathering of such numerous armies. 

" We halted for a moment on the verge of the 
uplands to enjoy the magnificent prospect before us. 
Below lay the wide plain ; at a few miles' distance 
we saw the thick palm groves of 'Eyoon, and what 
little of its towers and citadel the dense foliage per- 
mitted to the eye. Far off on our right, that is, to 
the west, a large dark patch marked the tillage and 
plantations which girdle the town of Bass ; other 
villages and hamlets too were thickly scattered over 
the landscape. All along the ridge where we stood, 
and visible at various distances down the level, rose 
the tall circular watch-towers of Kaseem. But 
immediately before us stood a more remarkable 
monument, one that fixed the attention and wonder 
even of our Arab companions themselves. 

" For hardly had we descended the narrow path 
where it winds from ledge to ledge down to the 
bottom, when saw before us several huge stones, 
like enormous boulders, placed endways perpendicu- 
larly on the soil, while some of them yet upheld 



198 TBA VELS IN ARABIA, 

similar masses laid transversely over their summit. 
They were arranged in a curve, once forming part, 
it would appear, of a large circle, and many other 
like fragments lay rolled on the ground at a mod- 
erate distance ; the number of those still upright 
was, to speak by memory, eight or nine. Two, at 
about ten or twelve feet apart one from the other, 
and resembling huge gate posts, yet bore their hori- 
zontal lintel, a long block laid across them ; a few 
were deprived of their upper traverse, the rest 
supported each its head-piece in defiance of time 
and of the more destructive efforts of man. So 
nicely balanced did one of these cross-bars appear, 
that in hope it might prove a rocking-stone, I 
guided my camel right under it, and then stretching 
up my riding-stick at arm's-length could just man- 
age to touch and push it, but it did not stir. Mean- 
while the respective heights of camel, rider, and 
stick taken together would place the stone in ques- 
tion full fifteen feet from the ground. 

" These blocks seem, by their quality, to have 
been hewn from the neighboring limestone cliff, and 
roughly shaped, but present no further trace of art, 
no groove or cavity of sacrificial import, much less 
anything intended .for figure or ornament. The 
people of the country attribute their erection to 
Darim, and by his own hands, too, seeing that he 
was a giant ; perhaps, also, for some magical cere- 
mony, since he was a magician. Pointing towards 
Eass, our companions affirmed that a second and 
similar stone circle, also of gigantic dimensions, 
existed there; and, lastly, they mentioned a third 



JOURNEY TO BEEEYDAH. 199 

towards the southwest, that is, on the confines of 
Hedjaz. 

" Here, as in most parts of Arabia, the staple 
article of cultivation is the date palm. Of this tree 
there are, however, many widely differing species, 
and Kaseem can boast of containing the best known 
anywhere, the Khalas of Hasa alone excepted. The 
ripening season coincides with the latter half of 
August and the first of September, and we had 
thus an ample opportunity for testing the produce. 
Those who, like most Europeans at home, only 
know the date from the dried specimens of that 
fruit shown beneath a label in shop-windows, can 
hardly imagine how delicious it is when eaten fresh 
and in Central Arabia. Nor is it when newly- 
gathered heating, a defect inherent to the preserved 
fruit everywhere ; nor does its richness, however 
great, bring satiety : in short, it is an article of food 
alike pleasant and healthy. Its cheapness in its na- 
tive land might astonish a Londoner. Enough of 
the very best dates from the Bereydah gardens to fill 
a large Arab handkerchief, about fifteen inches each 
way, almost to bursting, cost Barakat and myself 
the moderate sum of three farthings. We hung it 
up from the roof-beam of our apartment to preserve 
the luscious fruit from the ants, and it continued to 
drip molten sweetness into a sugary pool on the 
floor below for three days together, before we had 
demolished the contents, though it figured at every 
dinner and supper during that period. 

" We were soon under the outer walls of 'E'yoon, 
a good-sized town containing at least ten thousand 



200 TRAVELS IN ABABIA. 

inhabitants according to jny rough computation. 
Its central site, at the very juncture of the great 
northern and western hues of communication, 
renders it important, and for this reason it is care- 
fully fortified, that is, for the country, and furnished 
with watch-towers, much resembling manufacturing 
chimneys in size and shape, besides a massive and 
capacious citadel. My readers may anticipate ana- 
logous, though proportionate, features in most other 
towns and villages of this province. 

" Between the town walls and the sand hills close 
by was a sheltered spot, where we took about four 
hours of sleep, till the waning moon rose. Then 
all were once more in movement, camels gnarling, 
men loading, and the doctor and his apprentice 
mounting their beasts, all for Bereydah. But that 
town was distant, and when day broke at last there 
was yet a long road to traverse. This now lay 
amid mounds and valleys, thick with the vegetation 
already described ; and somewhat after sunrise we 
took a full hour to pass the gardens and fields of 
Ghat, a straggling village, where a dozen wells 
supplied the valley with copious irrigation. On 
the adjoining hillocks — I may not call them 
heights — was continued the series of watch-towers, 
corresponding with others farther off that belonged 
to villages seen by glimpses in the landscape ; I 
heard, but soon forgot, their names. Inability to 
note down at once similar details was a great an- 
noyance to me; but the sight of a pencil and 
pocket-book would have been just then particu- 
larly out of place, and I was obliged to trust to 



JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH. 201 

memory, which on this, as on too many other occa- 
sions, played me false. 

" A march of ten or twelve hours had tired us, 
and the weather was oppressively close, no uncom- 
mon phenomenon in Kaseem, where, what between 
low sandy ground and a southerly latitude, the 
climate is much more sultry than in Djebel Shomer, 
or the mountains of Toweyk. So that we were very 
glad when the ascent of a slight eminence discov- 
ered to our gaze the long-desired town of Berey- 
dah, whose oval fortifications rose to view amid an 
open and cultivated plain. It was a view for 
Turner. An enormous watch-fewer, near a hun- \ 
dred feet in height, a minaret of scarce inferior pro- 
portions, a mass of bastioned walls, such as we had 
not yet witnessed in Arabia, green groves arouncl 
and thickets of ithel, all under the dreamy glare of 
noon, offered a striking spectacle, far surpassing 
whatever I had anticipated, and announced popu- 
lousness and wealth. We longed to enter those 
gates and walk those streets. But we had yet a 
delay to wear out. At about a league from the 
town our guide Mubarek led us off the main road 
to the right, up and down several little but steep 
sand hills, and hot declivities, till about two in the 
afternoon, half roasted with the sun, we reached, 
never so weary, his garden gate. 

" The morning was bright, yet cool, when we got 
free of the maze of ithel and sand-slopes, and 
entered the lanes that traverse the garden circle 
round the town, in all quiet and security. But our 
approach to Bereydah was destined to furnish us 



202 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

an unexpected and undesired surprise, though 
indeed less starthng than that which discomposed 
our first arrival at Ha'yel. We had just passed a 
well near the angle of a garden wall, when we saw 
a man whose garb and appearance at once bespoke 
him for a muleteer of the north, watering a couple 
of mules at the pool hard by. Barakat and I stared 
with astonishment, and could hardly believe our 
eyes. For since the day we left Gaza for the south- 
eastern desert, we had never met with a like dress 
nor with these animals ; and how then came they 
here ? But there was no mistaking either the man 
or the beasts, and as the muleteer raised his head 
to look at the passers by, he also started at our 
sight, and evidently recognized in us something that 
took him unawares. But the riddle was soon 
solved. A few paces farther on^ our way opened 
out on the great plain that lies immediately under 
the town walls to the north. This space was now 
covered with tents and thronged with men of 
foreign dress and bearing, mixed with Arabs of town 
and desert, women and children, talking and quar- 
relling, buying and selling, going and coming ; 
everywhere baskets full of dates and vegetables, 
platters bearing eggs and butter, milk and whey, 
meat hung on poles, bundles of firewood, etc., 
stood ranged in rows, horsemen and camel-men 
were riding about between groups seated round 
fires or reclining against their baggage ; in the 
midst of all this medley a gilt ball surmounted a 
large white pavilion of a make that I had not seen 
since last I left India some eleven years before, and 





AN ARAB ENCAMPMENT. 



JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH. 203 

numerous smaller tents of striped cloth, and 
certainly not of Arab fashion, clustered around ; a 
lively scene, especially of a clear morning, but re- 
quiring some explanation from its exotic and non- 
Arab character. These tents belonged to the great 
caravan of Persian pilgrims, on their return from 
Medina to Meshid 'Alee by the road of Kaseem, 
and hence all this unusual concourse and bustle. 

" Passing a little on to the east, we left the 
crowded encampment on one side and turned to 
enter the city gates. Here, and this is generally 
the case in the larger Arab towns of old date, 
the fortifications surround houses alone, and the 
gardens all lie without, sometimes defended — at 
'Oneyzah, for example — by a second outer girdle of 
walls and towers, but sometimes, as at Bereydah, 
devoid of any mural protection. The town itself is 
composed exclusively of streets, houses, and- market- 
places, and bears in consequence a more regular 
appearance than the recent and village-like arrange- 
ments of the Djowf and even of Ha'yel. We 
passed a few streets, tolerably large but crooked, 
and then made the camels kneel down in a little 
square or public place, where I remained seated by 
them on the baggage, switch in hand, like an ordi- 
nary Arab traveller, and Barakat with Mubarbek 
went in search of lodgings. 

" Yery long did the half-hour seem to me during 
which I had thus to mount guard till my com- 
panions returned from their quest ; the streets were 
full of people, and a disagreeable crowd of the lower 
sort, was every moment collecting round myself and 



204 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

mv camels, with all the inquisitiveness of the idle 
and vulgar in every land. At last my companions 
came back to say that they had found what they 
wanted ; a kick or two brought the camels on 
their legs again, and we moved off to our new 
quarters. 

" The house in question was hardly more than 
five minutes' walk from the north gate, and at about 
an equal distance only from the grea»t market-place 
on the other side. Its position was therefore good. 
It possessed two large rooms on the ground story, 
and three smaller, besides a spacious courtyard, 
surrounded by high w^alls. A winding stair of 
irregular steps and badly lighted, like all in the 
Nedjed, led up to an extent of flat roof, girt round 
by a parapet six feet high, and divided into two 
compartments by a cross-wall, thus affording a very 
tolerable place for occupation moi-ning and evening, 
at the hours when the side- walls might yet project 
enough shade to shelter those seated alongside 
of them, besides an excellent sleeping-place for 
night." 

The day after their arrival they made a call upon 
Mohanna, the ruler of Bereydah, in order to ask his 
assistance in proceeding to Nedjed. Bat he was 
too busy in devising means to exact more tribute- 
money from the Persian pilgrims, to give any 
notice to two persons, whose dress and appearance 
gave no token of wealth. This neglect afterwards 
proved to be a piece of good fortune. Thej^ then 
spent several days in a vain attempt to find camels 
and guides ; no one was willing to undertake the 



JOURNEY TO BEREYDAE. 205 

service. The central province of Nedjed, the 
genuine Wahabee country, is to the rest of Arabia 
a sort of Hon's den, into which few venture and yet 
fewer return. An elderly man of Bereydah, of whom 
Palgrave demanded information, simply rephed, 
"It is Nedjed ; he who enters it does not come out 
again," and this is almost literally true. Its moun- 
tains, once the fastnesses of robbers and assassins, 
are at the present day equally or even more formid- 
able as the stronghold of fanatics who consider 
every one save themselves an infidel or a heretic, 
and who regard the slaughter of an infidel or a 
heretic as a duty, at least a merit. In addition to 
this general cause of anticipating a worse than cold 
reception in Nedjed, wars and bloodshed, aggression 
and tyranny, have heightened the original anti- 
pathy of .the surrounding population into special 
and definite resentment for wrongs received, per- 
haps inflicted, till Nedjed has become for all but her 
born sons doubly dangerous, and doubly hateful. 

Another circumstance, which seemed to make 
Palgrave's situation more difficult, although it was 
equally fortunate in the end, was a rebellion which 
had broken out in the neighboring city of Oneyzah, 
headed by Zamil, a native chief. The town was at 
that time besieged by the Wahabees, yet held out 
gallantly, and the sympathy of the people of all 
Kaseem was so strongly on the side of Zamil, that 
only the presence of the Wahabee troops in Berey- 
dah kept that city, also, from revolt. The rebels 
had sent deputations to Mecca and also to Djebel 
Shomer for assistance, and there seemed to be some 



206 



TBAVELS IN ARABIA, 



possibility of a general Central Arabian revolt 
against the hated Wahabee supremacy. It seemed 
thus to be a most unpropitious time for penetrating 
the stronghold of Nedjed. Palgrave did not so 
much fear the suspicion of being a European, as that 
of being an Ottoman spy. His first need, however, 
was the means of going forward safely. He thus 
described how an apparent chance made him 
acquainted with the man to whom almost the entire 
success of his later travels was due : 

" It was the sixth day after our arrival, and the 
22d of September, when about noon I was sitting 
alone and rather melancholy, and trying to beguile 
the time with reading the incomparable Divan of 
Ebn-el-Farid, the favorite companion of my travels. 
Barakat had at my request betaken himself out of 
doors, less in hopes of success than to ' go to and 
fro in the earth and walk up and down in it ; ' nor 
did I now dare to expect that he would return any 
wiser than he had set forth. When lo ! after a long 
two hours' absence, he came in with cheerful face, 
index of good tidings. 

" Good, indeed, they were, none better. Their 
bearer said, that after roaming awhile to no purport 
through the streets and market-place, he had be- 
thought liim a visit to the Persian camp. There, 
while straying among the tents, ' like a washerman's 
dog,' a Hindoo would say, he noticed somewhat 
aloof from the crowd, a small group of pilgrims 
seated near their baggage on the sand, while curls 
of smoke going up from amid the circle indicated 
the presence of a fire, which at that time of day 



JOUENEY TO BERETDAH. 207 

could be for nothing else than coffee. Civilized 
though Barakat undoubtedly was, he was yet by 
blood and heart an Arab, and for an Arab to see 
coffee-making, and not to put himself in the way of 
getting a share, would be an act of self-restraint to- 
tally unheard-of ; so he approached the group, and 
was of course invited to sit down and drink. The par- 
ty consisted of two wealthy Persians, accompanied 
by three or four of that class of men, half servants, 
half companions, who often hook on to travellers at 
Bagdad or its neighborhood, besides a mulatto of 
Arabo-negrine origin, and his master, this last being 
the leader of the band, and the giver of the aromatic 
entertainment. 

" Barakat's whole attention was at once engrossed 
by this personage. A remarkably handsome face, 
of a tj'pe evidently not belonging to the Arab pen- 
insula, long hair curling down to the shoulders, an 
over-dress of fine spun silk, somewhat soiled by 
travel, a colored handkerchief of Syrian manufac- 
ture on the head, a manner and look indicating an 
education much superior to that ordinary in his 
class and occupation, a camel-driver's, were pecu- 
liarities sufiicient of themselves to attract notice, 
and give rise to conjecture. But when these went 
along with a welcome and a salute in the forms and 
tone of Damascus or Aleppo, and a ready flow of 
that superabundant and overcharged politeness for 
which the Syrian subjects of the Turkish empire 
are renowne'd, Barakat could no longer doubt that 
he had a fellow-countryman, and one, too, of some 
note, before him. 



208 'J^^ y^I^l^. IN ARABIA, 

" Such was in fact the case. Aboo-'Eysa, to give 
him the name by which he was commonly known in 
these parts, though in his own country he bears 
another denomination, was a native of Aleppo, and 
son of a not unimportant individual in that fair city. 
His education, and the circumstances of his early 
youth, had rendered him equally conversant with 
townsmen and herdsmen, with citizens and Bedou- 
ins, with Arabs and Europeans. By lineal descent 
he was a Bedouin, since his grandfather belonged 
to "the Mejadimah, who are themselves an offshoot 
of the Benoo-Khalid ; but in habits, thoughts and 
manners he was a very son of Aleppo, where he 
had passed the greater part of his boyhood and 
youth. When about twenty-five years of age, he 
became involved, culpably or not, in the great con- 
spiracy against the Turkish government which broke 
out in the Aleppine insurrection of 1852. Like 
many others he was compelled to anticipate conse- 
quences by a prompt flight." 

After trying commerce in order to retrieve his 
ruined fortunes, but with ill success, Aboo-'Eysa 
engaged in the horse trade between Persia and 
Arabia, and also failed. He then went to Ri'ad, the 
capital of Nedjed, and by presents to Feysul, the 
chief, obtained a post as guide to the Persian cara- 
vans of pilgrims to Mecca, across Arabia. At this 
time he had followed that career for three years, 
and had amassed considerable wealth, for his polite- 
ness, easy manners and strict probity made him 
popular with the pilgrims. 

" He recognized a fellow-countryman in Barakat," 



JOUBNEY TO BERETDAH, 209 

says Palgrave, "received him with marked poKte- 
ness, and carefully informed himself of our whence 
and whither. Barakat, overjoyed to find at last a 
kind of opening after difficulties that had appeared 
to obstruct all further progress, made no delay in 
inquiring whether he would undertake our guidance 
to Ei'ad. Aboo-'Eysa replied that he was just on 
the point of separating from his friends the Persians, 
whose departure would leave camels enough and to 
spare at his disposition, and that so far there was 
no hindrance to the proposal. As for the Waha- 
bees and their unwillingness to admit strangers 
within their limits, he stated himself to be well 
known to them, and that in his company we should 
have nothing to fear from their suspicious criticism." 

The agreement was made at once, and the travel- 
lers now only waited until their new companion 
should have made some final arrangements with the 
Persian pilgrims, who were to travel directly from 
Bereydah to Bagdad. In the mean time, the former 
took advantage of the delay to see as much as pos- 
sible of the place, and even to make excursions in 
the neighborhood, especially in the direction of the 
beleaguered city of Oneyzah. Palgrave's descrip- 
tion of the place shows that it possesses the same 
general features as the other Arabian towns, yet 
may be quoted for its intrinsic picturesqueness : 

"Barakat and myself have made our morning 
household purchases at the fair, and the sun being 
now an hour or more above the horizon, we think it 
time to visit the market place of the town, which 
would hardly be open sooner. We re-enter the city 



210 



TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 



t'\ 



gate, and pass on our way by our house door, where 
we leave our bundle of eatables, and regain the high 
street of Bereydah. Before long we reach a high 
arch across the road ; this gate divides the market 
from the rest of the quarter. We enter : first of all 
we see a long range of butchers' shops on either 
side, thick hung with flesh of sheep and camel, and 
very dirtily kept. Were not the air pure and the 
chmate healthy, the plague would assuredly be 
endemic here ; but in Arabia no special harm seems 
to follow. We hasten on, and next pass a series of 
cloth and linen warehouses, stocked partly with 
home manufacture, but more imported; Bagdad 
cloaks and head-gear for instance, Syrian shawls and 
Egyptian slippers. Here markets follow the law 
general throughout the East, that all shops or stores 
of the same description should be clustered togeth- 
er, a system w^hose advantages on the whole out- 
weigh its inconveniences, at least for small towns 
like these. In the large cities and capitals of 
Europe, greater extent of locaHty requires evidently 
a different method of arrangement ; it might be awk- 
ward for the inhabitants of Hyde Park were no hat- 
ters to be found nearer than the Tower. But what 
is Bereydah compared even with a second-rate 
European city ? However, in a crowd, it yields to 
none ; the streets at this time of the day are 
thronged to choking, and to make matters worse, a 
huge splay-footed camel comes every now and then, 
heaving from side to side like a lubber-rowed boat, 
with a long beam on his back menacing the heads 
of those in the way, or with two enormous loads of 



JOVRNET TO BEREYDAH. 211 

fire-wood, each as large as himself, sweeping the 
road before him of men, women, and children, while 
the driver, high-perched on the hump, regards such 
trifles with the most supreme indifference, so long as 
he brushes his path open. Sometimes there is a 
whole string of these beasts, the head rope of each 
tied to the crupper of his precursor, very uncom- 
fortable passengers when met with at a narrow turn- 
ing. 

" Through such obstacles we have found or made 
our way, and are how amid leather and shoemakers' 
shops, then among copper and iron smiths, whose 
united clang might waken the dead or kill the 
living, till at last we emerge on the central town- 
square, not a bad one either, nor very irregular, con- 
sidering that it is in Kaseem. About half one side 
is taken up by the great mosque, an edifice near two 
centuries old, judging by its style and appearance, 
but it bears on no part of it either date or inscrip- 
tion. This is, according to my experience, a univer- 
sal rule among the constructions of Central and 
Eastern Arabia ; neither Cufic, nor Himyarite, nor 
Arabic writings appear on lintel or column, a want 
which much disappointed me, nor could I well 
understand whence this dearth of memorials, espe- 
cially when contrasted with the abundance of 
inscriptions in Hauran and Safa, Palmyra and Bab- 
ylon. Colored writings daubed on walls and over 
gates are indeed common, but such inscriptions can, 
it is evident, be only of a few years' standing. Nor 
does the dearth of stone-graving come from want of 
skill, since architectural carving is frequent, though 



212 TRAVELS IN ABASIA. 

rude, in Nedjed, while throughout Oman this and 
other ornamental arts are cultivated with no despic- 
able success. 

" The minaret of this mosque is often very loftj — 
a proof, among many others, that its date reaches 
farther back than the first Wahabee domination, for 
the Nejdean sect does not approve of high minarets, 
from the all-sufficient reason that they did not 
exist in the time of Mahomet (true conservatives !), 
and they accordingly content themselves with a 
little- corner turret, barely exceeding in height the 
rest of the roof. A crack running up on one side of 
the tower bears witness to an earthquake said to 
have occurred here about thirty years since, pro- 
bably the same of which we subsequently found 
traces in Hasa. The arch, and consequently the 
vault, are here unknown ; hence the pillars that 
upbear the mosque roof are close to each other and 
very numerous. They are of stone. 

" Another side of the square is formed by an 
open gallery, reminding me of those at Bologna. 
In its shade groups of citizens are seated discussing 
news or business. The central space is occupied by 
camels and by bales of various goods, among which 
the coffee of Yemen, henna, and saffron, bear a 
large part. However, at the period of our arrival, 
commerce was unusually languid, owing to the war, 
whose occupations absorbed a considerable portion 
of the population itself, while they also rendered 
the roads unsafe for traders and travellers. 

" From this square several diverging streets run 
out, each containing a market-place for this or that 



JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH. 213 

ware, and all ending in portals dividing them from 
the ordinary habitations. The vegetable and. fruit 
market is very extensive, and kept almost exclu- 
sively by women ; so are also the shops for grocery 
and spices. Nor do the fair sex of Bereydah seem 
a whit inferior to their rougher partners in knowl- 
edge of business and thrifty diligence. ' Close- 
handedness beseems a woman no less than gener- 
osity a man,' says an Arab poet, unconsciously 
coinciding with Lance of Verona in his comments 
on the catalogue of his future spouse's ' conditions.' 

" The whole town has an aspect of old but de- 
clining prosperity. There are few new houses, but 
many falling into ruin. The faces, too, of most we 
meet are serious, and their voices in an undertone. 
Silk dresses are prohibited by the dominant faction, 
and tobacco can only be smoked within doors, and 
by stealth. Every now and then zealous Wahabee 
missionaries from Ri'ad pay a visit of reform and 
preaching to unwilling auditors, and disobedience 
to the customs of the Nejdean sect is noticed and 
punished, often severely. 

" If, invited by its owner, we enter one of the 
houses, we find the interior arrangement somewhat 
differing from that usual in Djebel Shomer. The 
towns of Kaseem are close built, and space within 
the walls becomes in proportion more valuable; 
hence the courtyards are smaller and the rooms 
narrow ; a second story, too, is common here, 
whereas at Ha'yel it is a rare exception. The 
abundance of wood in this province renders char- 
coal superfluous, and the small furnaces of Djowf 



214 



TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 



and Shomer have disappeared, to make room for 
fireplaces sunk in the floor, with a raised stone rim 
and dog-irons, exactly hke those in use at home 
before coals and coal-smoke had necessitated 
chimney-pieces and all the modern nicety of 
hearths and stoves. Ghada and markh wood is 
piled on the irons, and the coffee, here super- 
excellent, for the very best of Yemen comes to 
Kaseem, is prepared on the blaze. 

" Enough of the town ; the streets are narrow, 
hot, and dusty ; the day, too, advances ; but the 
gardens are yet cool. So we dash at a venture 
through a labyrinth of byways and crossways till 
we find ourselves in the wide street that, like a 
boulevard in France, runs immediately along but 
inside the walls. 

" Here is a side gate, but half ruined, with great 
folding doors and no one to open them. The wall 
of one of the flanking towers has, however, been 
broken in, and from hence we hope to find an out- 
let on the gardens outside. We clamber in, and, 
after mounting a heap of rubbish, once the foot of 
a winding staircase, have before us a window look- 
ing right on the gardens ; fortunately we are not 
the first to try this short cut, and the truant boys 
of the town have sufficiently enlarged the aperture 
and piled up stones on the ground outside to 
render the passage tolerably easy ; we follow the 
indication, and in another minute stand in the open 
air without the walls. The breeze is fresh, and will 
continue so till noon. Before us are high palm 
trees and dark shadows; the ground is velvet 



JOUBNET TO BERETDAH. 215 

green with the autumn crop of maize and vetches, 
and intersected by a labyrinth of watercourses, 
some dry, others flowing ; for the w^ells are at work, 

"We stroll about in the shade, hide ourselves 
amid the high maize to smoke a quiet pipe unob- 
served by prying Nedjean eyes, and then walk on 
till at some distance we come under a high ridge of 
sand. Curiosity leads us to climb it, -though steep 
and sliding. From its summit we look southwest 
in the direction of 'Oneyzah ; the whole country 
between is jotted over with islets of cultivation 
amid the sands, and far off long lines of denser 
shade indicate whereabouts 'Oneyzah itself is situ- 
ated. But noon draws on, and the heat increases ; 
it were ill to remain longer in the blaze of mid-day. 
So we retrace our steps to the walls, and follow at a 
venture the town ditch till a gate appears, by which 
we enter and find our way home again. 

" While on one of our suburban excursions we 
took the direction of 'Oneyzah, but found it utterly 
impossible .to arrive within its walls; so we con- 
tented ourselves with an outside and distant view 
of this large and populous town ; the number of its 
houses, and their size, judging by the overtopping 
summits that marked out the dwelling of Zamil and 
his family, far surpassed anything in Bereydah. 
The outer fortifications are enormously thick, and 
the girdle of palm-trees between them and the town 
affords a considerable additional defence to the 
latter. For all I could see, there is little stonework 
in the construction ; they appear almost exclusively 
of unbaked bricks ; yet even so they are formidable 



21G TRAVELS IN AEABJA. 

defences for Arabia. The whole country around, 
and whatever lay northeast towards Bereydah, 
was more or less ravaged by the war ; and we were 
blamed by our friends" as very rash in having 
ventured thus far ; in fact, it was a mere chance 
that we did not fall in with skirmishers or plun- 
derers ; and in such a case the military discipline 
of Kaseem would hardly have ensured our safety. 

" When all was ready for the long-expected de- 
parture, it was definitely fixed for the 3d of October, 
a Friday, I think, at nightfall. Since our first inter- 
view Barakat and myself had not again presented 
ourselves before Mohanna, except in chance meet- 
ings, accompanied by distant salutations in the 
street or market-place ; and we did not see any 
need for paying him a special farewell call. 
Indeed, after learning who and what he was, we 
did our best not to draw his grey eye on us, and 
thereby escaped some additional trouble and sur- 
plus duties to pay, nor did any one mention us to 
him. At star-rise we bade our host and house- 
holder Ahmed a final adieu, and left the town with 
Aboo-'Eysa for our guide." 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

PALGRAVE's travels — JOURNEY TO RI'aD, THE CAPI- 
TAL OF NEDJED. 

TWO roads lay before us. The shorter, and 
for that reason the more frequented of the 
two, led southeast-by-east through Woshem and 
Wady Haneefah to Ei'ad. But this track passed 
through a district often visited at the present 
moment by the troops of 'Oneyzah and their allies, 
and hence our companions, not over-courageous for 
the most, were afraid to follow it. Another road, 
much more circuitous, but farther removed from 
the scene of military operations, led northeast to 
Zulphah, and thence entered the province of 
Sedeyr, which it traversed in a southeasterly or 
southern direction, and thus reached the 'Aared. 
Our council of war resolved on the latter itinerary, 
nor did we ourselves regret a roundabout which 
promised to procure us the sight of much that we 
might scarcely have otherwise an opportunity of 
visiting. Barakat and I were mounted on tw^o ex- 
cellent dromedaries of Aboo-'Eysa's stud ; the 
Naib^ was on a lovely grey she camel with a hand- 

*" The Naib " was a Persian official, dispatclied by the Persian 



213 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

some saddle, crimson and gold. The Meccans 
shared between them a long-backed black beast ; 
the rest were also mounted on camels or drome- 
daries, since the road before us was impracticable 
for horses, at any rate at this time of year. 

" Our road lay in Kaseem, whose highlands we 
rejoined once more, and traversed till sunset. The 
view was very beautiful from its extent and variety 
of ups and downs, in broad grassy hills ; little 
groups of trees stood in scattered detachments 
around ; and had a river, that desideratum of 
Arabia, been in sight, one might almost have 
fancied oneself in the country bordering the Lower 
Rhine for some part of its course ; readers may 
suppose, too, that there was less verdure here than 
in the European parallel ; my comparison bears 
only on the general turn of the view. No river 
exists nearer Kaseem than Shatt, (Euphrates,) some 
hundred leagues off; and our eyes had been too 
long accustomed to the deceptive pools of the 
mirage, to associate with them even a passing idea 
of aught save drought and heat. 

" We journeyed on till dark, and then reached 
certain hillocks of a different character from the 
hard ground lately under our feet. Here began the 
Nefood, whose course from the southwest to north- 
pilgrims to lay before Feysul, tlie ruler of Nedjed, a statement of 
the extortions to which they had been compelled to submit at 
Bereydah. He was thus equally under Aboo-'Eysa's charge, and 
his company was rather an advantage to Palgrave, since his 
mission was another cause of removing — or, at least, lessening — 
the prominence of the latter, after his arrival at Ei'ad. 



JOURNEY TO RFAD. 219 

east, and then north, parts between Kaseem, 
Woshem, and Sedeyr. I have abeady said some- 
thing of these sandy inlets when describing that 
which w^e crossed three months ago between Djowf 
and Shomer. 

" On the verge of the desert strip we now halted 
a little, to eat a hasty supper, and to drink, the 
Arabs coffee and the- Persians tea. But journeying 
in these sands, under the heat of the day, is alike 
killing to man and beast, and therefore Aboo-'Eysa 
had resolved that we should cross the greater por- 
tion under favor of the cooler hours of night. In 
pursuance of his idea, we were again mounted and 
on our way before the slanting pyramid of zodiacal 
light had faded in the w^est. 

"All night, a weary night, we waded up and down 
through waves of sand, in which the camels often 
sank up to their knees, and their riders were 
obliged to alight and help them on. There was no 
symptom of a track, no landmark to direct our 
way ; the stars alone were now our compass and 
guide ; but Aboo-'Eysa had passed this Nefood 
more than once, and knew the line of march by 
heart. When the first pale streak of dawn ap- 
peared on our right shoulder, we were near the 
summit of a sandy mountain, and the air blew 
keener than I had yet felt it in Arabia. We halted, 
and gathered together heaps of ghada and other 
desert shrubs to light blazing fires, by which some 
sat, some lay and slept, myself for one, till the rising 
sunbeams tipped the yellow crests around, and we 
resumed our way. 



220 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



" Now by full daylight appeared the true char- 
acter of the region which we were traversing ; its 
aspect resembled the Nefood north of DJebel 
Shomer, but the undulations were here higher and 
deeper, and the sand itself lighter and less stable. 
In most spots neither shrub nor blade of grass 
could fix its root, in others a scanty vegetation 
struggled through, but no trace of man anywhere. 
The camels ploughed slowly on ; the Persians, un- 
accustomed to such scenes, were downcast and 
silent ; all were tired, and no wonder. At last, a 
little before noon, and just as the sun's heat was 
becoming intolerable, we reached the verge of an 
immense crater-like hollow, certainly three or four 
miles in circumference, where the sand-billows re- 
ceded on every side, and left in the midst a pit 
seven or eight hundred feet in depth, at whose 
base we could discern a white gleam of limestone 
rock, and a small group of houses, trees, and gar- 
dens, thus capriciously isolated in the very heart of 
the desert. 

" This was the little village and oasis of Wasit, 
or * the intermediary,' so-called because a central 
point between the three provinces of Kaseem, 
Sedeyr, and Woshem, yet belonging to none of 
them. Nor is it often visited by wayfarers, as we 
learnt from the inhabitants, men simple and half 
savage, from their little intercourse with the outer 
world, and unacquainted even with the common 
forms of Islamitic prayer, though dwelling in the 
midst of the Wahabee dominions. 

" A long winding descent brought us to the 



JOURNEY TO BFAD. 221 

bottom of the valley, where on our arrival men and 
boys came out to stare at the Persians, and by 
exacting double prices for fruit and camel's milk, 
proved themselves not altogether such fools as they 
looked. For us, regarded as Arabs, we enjoyed 
their hospitality — it was necessarily a limited one — 
gratis ; whereupon the Na'ib grew jealous, and 
declaimed against the Arabs as ' infidels,' for not 
treating with suitable generosity pilgrims like them- 
selves returning from the ' house of God." 

" To get out of this pit was no easy matter ; facilis 
descensus, etc., thought I ; no ascending path 
showed itself in the required direction, and every 
one tried to push up his floundering beast where the 
sand appeared at a manageable slope, and firm to 
the footing. Camels and men fell and rolled back 
down the declivity, till some of the party shed tears 
of vexation, and others, more successful, laughed 
at the annoyance of their companions. Aboo- 
'Eysa ran about from one to the other, attempting 
to direct and keep them together, till finally, as 
Heaven willed, we reached the upper rim to the 
north. 

" Before us lay what seemed a storm-driven sea 
of fire in the red light of afternoon, and through it 
we wound our way, till about an hour before 
sunset we fell in with a sort of track or furrow. 
Next opened out on our road a long descent, at 
whose extreme base we discerned the important 
and commercial town of Zulphah. Beyond it rose 
the wall-hke steeps of Djebel Toweyk, so often 
heard of, and now seen close at hand. Needless to 



^22 TRA VEL8 IN ARABIA. 

say how joyfully we welcomed the first view of that 
strange ridge, the heart and central knot of Arabia, 
beyond which whatever lay might almost be reck- 
oned as a return journey. 

" We had now, in fact, crossed the Nefood, and 
had at our feet the great valley which constitutes 
the main line of communication between Nedjed and 
the north, reaching even to the Tigris and Bagdad. 
The sun was setting when we reached the lowest 
ebb of the sand ocean, and left its enormous waves 
piled up ridge above ridge behind us ; Barakat and 
myself, thanks to the excellent fibre of our drome- 
daries, were far in front of our associates, and we 
willingly allowed the beasts to turn aside from the 
track and feed on the copious pasturage of The- 
mam, a ragged sweet-smelling grass common 
throughout Nedjed, and often mentioned by the 
poets, while we gazed no\v^ on the red range in our 
rear, now on the long valley stretching upon right 
and left, to north and south, with the broken out- 
lines of the walls of Zulphah a mile or more in 
front, and now on the precipitous though low for- 
tress-ledge of Toweyk which bordered the horizon. 

" We passed the whole length of the town of Zul- 
phah, several streets of which had been lately swept 
away by the winter torrents that pour at times their 
short-lived fury down this valley. Before us to the 
southeast stretched the long hollow ; on our right 
was the Nefood, on our left Djebel Toweyk and the 
province of Sedeyr. The mountain air blew cool, 
and this day's journey was a far pleasanter one than 
its predecessor. We continued our march down the 



JOUBNET TO RVAD. 223 

valley till the after.'?oon, when we turned aside into 
a narrow gorge running up at a sharp angle to the 
northeast, and thus entered between the heights of 
Djebel Toweyk itself. 

" This mountain essentially constitutes Nedjed. It 
is a wide and flat chain, or rather plateau, whose 
general form is that of a huge crescent. If I may 
be permitted here to give my rough guess regard- 
ing the elevation of the main plateau, a guess 
grounded partly on the vegetation, climate, and 
similar local features, partly on an approximate esti- 
mate of the ascent itself, and of the subsequent 
descent on the other or sea side, I should say that 
it varies from a height of one to two thousand feet 
above the surrounding level of the peninsula, and 
may thus be about three thousand feet at most 
above the sea. Its loftiest ledges occur in the 
Sedeyr district, where we shall pass them before 
long ; the centre and the southwesterly arm is cer- 
tainly lower. Djebel Towej^k is the middle knot of 
Arabia, its Caucasus, so to say ; and is still, as it 
has often been in former times, the turning point of 
the whole, or almost the whole, peninsula in a polit- 
ical and national bearing. To it alone is the term 
' Nedjed,' strictly and topographically applied ; 
although the same denomination is sometimes, nay, 
often, given by the Arabs themselves to all the 
inland provinces now under Wahabee rule. 

" The climate of the northern part of Djebel 
Toweyk, whether plateau or valley, coincident with 
the province of Sedeyr, is perhaps one of the health- 
iest in the world ; an exception might be made in 




224 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

faror of Djebel Shomer alone. The above-named 
districts resemble each other closely in dryness of 
atmosphere, and the inhabitants of Sedeyr, like 
those of Shomer, are remarkable for their ruddy 
complexion and well developed stature. But when 
we approach the centre of the mountain crescent, 
where its whole level lowers, while the more south- 
erly latitude brings it nearer to the prevailing influ- 
ences of the tropical zone, the air becomes damper 
and more relaxing, and a less salubrious climate 
pictures itself in the sallower faces and slender 
make of its denizens. 

Two days later we attained the great plateau of 
which I have a few pages since given an anticipated 
description. Here for the first time since our pas- 
sage of the Ghour, lq the well-known desert between 
Gaza and Ma' an, we met with a clouded sky and a 
disturbed atmosphere. But my readers will recall 
to mind that it was now the 7th of October, and not 
be surprised at an autumn storm. The sky, hither- 
to perfectly clear, was suddenly, indeed almost 
instantaneously, overcast, and a furious gust of 
wind rushed down, while clouds of dust darkened 
the air, till we could hardly see our way. Next fol- 
lowed a few drops of rain, but the wind was too 
high to allow of a good shower, and in about half 
an hour the whole had blown over ; however, the 
breeze which succeeded was delightfully cool, and 
worthy of the Apennines. 

" About noon we halted in a brushwood-covered 
plain to light fire and prepare coffee. After which we 
pursued our easterly way, still a little to the north ; 



JOURNEY TO RFAD. 225 

now and then meeting with travellers or peasants ; 
but a European would find these roads very lonely 
in comparison with those of his own country. All 
the more did I admire the perfect submission and 
strict police enforced by the central government, so 
that even a casual robbery is very rare in the prov- 
inces, and highwaymen are totally out of the ques- 
tion. At last, near the same hour of afternoon that 
had brought us the day before to Ghat, we caine in 
sight of Mejmaa', formerly capital of the province, 
and still a place of considerable importance, with a- 
a population, to judge by appearances and hearsay, 
of between ten and twelve thousand souls. 

" We were up early next morning, for the night 
air was brisk, and a few hours of sleep had sufficed 
us. The whole level of the depression where 
Mejmaa' stands almost equals that of the surface of 
the first plateau, and to this now succeeded a 
second of yet greater height, forming part of the 
midrib of Toweyk. We took the high ground as 
the shorter route, instead of keeping to the lower 
steppe, and went on with a wide landscape on either 
side, but not in front, where at some distance to the 
east a third and loftier ledge arose to shut out the 
distant view. 

" After sunrise we came on a phenomenon of a 
nature, I believe, without a second or a parallel in 
Central Arabia, yet withal most welcome, namely, a 
tolerably large source of running water, formiug a 
wide and deepish stream, with grassy banks, and 
frogs croaking in the herbage. We opened our eyes 
in amazement ; it was the first of the kind that 



223 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

we liad beheld since leaving the valley of Djowf. 
But though a living, it is a short-Uved rivulet, 
reaching only four or five hours' distance to Djela- 
jil, where it is lost amid the plantations of the sub- 
urbs. 

" We had not long traversed the Meteyr encamp- 
ment, when we came in view of the walls of Toweym, 
a large town, containing between twelve and fifteen 
thousand inhabitants, according to the computation 
here in use, and which I follow for want of better. 
The houses are here built compactly, of two stories 
in general, sometimes three ; the lower rooms are 
often fifteen or sixteen feet high, and the upper ten 
or twelve ; while the roof itself is frequently sur- 
rounded by a blind wall of six feet or more, till the 
whole attains a fair altitude, and is not altogether 
unimposing. 

"Early next day, at a short distance from 
Toweym, we passed another large village with bat- 
tlemented walls, and on the opposite side of the 
road a square castle, looking very mediaeval ; this 
was Hafr. A couple of hours further on we 
reached Thomeyr, a straggling townlet, more 
abounding in broken walls than houses ; close by 
was a tall white rock crowned by the picturesque 
remains of an old outwork or fort, overlooking the 
place. Here our party halted for breakfast in the 
shadow of the ruins. Barakat and myself deter- 
mined to try our fortune in the village itself ; no 
guards appeared at its open gate ; we entered un- 
challenged, and roamed through silent lanes and 
heap.5 of rubbish, vainly seeking news of milk and 



JOURNEY TO EVAD. 227 

dates in this citj of the deai At last we met a 
meagre townsman, in look and apparel the apothe- 
cary of Romeo ; and of him, not without misgivings 
of heart, we inquired where aught eatable could be 
had for love or money. He apologized, though 
there was scarce need of that, for not having any 
such article at his disposal ; * but,' added he, * in such 
and such a house there will certainly be something 
good,' and thitherwards he preceded us in our 
search. We found indeed a large dwelling, but the 
door was shut ; we knocked to no purpose : nobody 
at home. 

Our man now set us a bolder example, and we 
altogether scrambled through a breach in the mud 
wall, and found ourselves amid empty rooms and a 
desolate courtyard. ' Everybody is out in the fields, 
women only excepted,' said our guide, and we sepa- 
rated no better off than before. Despairing of the 
village commissariat, we climbed a turret on the 
outer walls, and looked round. Now we saw at 
some distance a beautiful palm- grove, where we con- 
cluded that dates could not be wanting, and off we 
set for it across the stubble fields. But on arriving 
we found our paradise surrounded by high walls, 
and no gate discoverable. While thus we stood 
without, like Milton's fiend at Eden, but unable, like 
him, ^ by one high bound te overleap all bound,' up 
came a handsome Solibah lad, all in rags, half 
walking, half dancing, in the devil-may-care way of 
his tribe. ' Can you tell us which is the way in ?' 
was our first question, pointing to the garden before 
us ; and, ' Shall I sing you a song ?' was his first 



228 TBAVELS IN ABABIA. 

answer. ' We don't want your songs, but dates : 
how are we to get at tliem ?' w^e replied. ' Or shall 
I perform you a dance ?' answered the grinning 
young scoundrel, and forthwith began an Arabian 
polka-step, laughing all the while at our undis- 
guised impatience. At last he condescended to 
show us the way, but no other than what befitted an 
orchard-robbing boy, like himself, for it lay a little 
farther off, right over the wall, which he scaled with 
practiced ingenuity, and helped us to follow. So 
we did, though perhaps with honester intentions, 
and once within, stood amid trees, shade and water. 
The ' tender juvenile' then set up a shout, and soon 
a man appeared, ' old Adam's likeness set to dress 
this garden,' save that he was not old but young, as 
Adam might himself have been while yet in Eden. 
We were somewhat afraid of a surly reception, too 
well merited by our very equivocal introduction ; 
but the gardener was better tempered than many of 
his caste, and after saluting us very politely, offered 
his services at our disposal. On learning that we 
were from Damascus, he grew^ positively friendly, 
led us through an umbrageous alley to a little lodge 
or watch-hut in the enclosure, and there presented 
us to a cousin of his, who also said he had been to 
* Sham,' or Damascus. But ' Sham' has in Nedjed 
as loose an application as Nedjed has in Sham, and 
we found ere long that our new acquaintance had 
never really overpassed the limits of Arabia ; he had 
only gone some way on the northern pilgrim road 
towards Tabook and its neighborhood ; however, 
this was enough to make him a lion iu his- village, 



JOURNEY TO BFAB. 229 

and he was a great authority about Damascus, 
though he had stopped short at a full fortnight's dis- 
tance from its gates. We made friends, and a very 
tolerable extemporary breakfast of curds and dates, 
with clear cold water, such as our hearts desired, 
was set before us. The young Solibah had gone 
fruit-hunting on his own account. We then pro- 
posed to purchase a stock of dates for our onward 
way, whereon the gardener conducted us to an out- 
house where heaps of three or four kinds of this 
fruit, red and yellow, round or long, lay piled up, 
and bade us choose. At his recommendation we 
filled a large cloth which we had brought with us 
for the purpose with excellent ruddy dates, and gave 
in return a small piece of money, welcome here as 
elsewhere. We then took leave aud returned, but 
this time through the garden gate, to the stubble- 
fields, and passing under the broken walls of the 
village, reached our companions, who had become 
anxious at our absence. 

For three days longer the travellers journeyed 
southward, through the valleys branching out from 
Djebel Toweyk, encamping for the night near some 
of the small towns which still exist in that once 
populous, but now devastated region. "In the 
early gray of the fourth morning," says Palgrave, 
" we i)assed close under the plantations of Rowdah 
down the valley, now dry and still, once overflowed 
with the best blood of Arabia, and through the 
narrow and high-walled pass which gives entrance 
to the great strongholds of the land. The sun rose and 
lighted up to our view wild precipices on either side, 



230 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

with a tangled mass of broken rock and brushwood 
below, while coveys of partridges started up at our 
feet, and deer scampered away by the gorges to 
right or left, or a cloud of dust announced the ap- 
proach of peasant bands or horsemen going to and 
fro, and gardens or hamlets gleamed through side- 
openings or stood niched in the bulging passes of 
the Wady itself, till before noon we arrived at the 
little hamlet of Malka, or * the junction.' 

" Its name is derived from its position. Here the 
valley divides in form of a Y, sending off two 
branches — one southerly to Derey'eeyah, the other 
southeast by east through the centre of the province, 
and communicating with the actual capital, Ri'ad. 
At the point of bipartition stands what would in 
India be called a bungalo, and in Syria a khan — 
namely, a sort of open hotise, for the accommodation 
and rest of travellers ; close by is a large well, and 
a garden, the property of the heir-apparent, Abdal- 
lah. The broad foliage of fig-trees and citrons over- 
hangs the road, and invites to repose. We rested 
the hours of noon, partly in the guest-house and 
partly in the garden. 

" Aboo-'Eysa had meditated bringing us on that 
very evening to Ri'ad. But eight good leagues 
remained from Malka to the capital ; and when the 
Na'ib had terminated his cosmetic operations, the 
easterly-turning shadows left us no hope of attaining 
Ei'ad before nightfall. However, we resumed our 
march, and took the arm of the valley leading to 
Derey'eeyah ; but before reaching it we once more 
quitted the Wady, and followed a shorter path by 



JOURNEY TO RFAD. %^l 

the highlands to the left. Our way was next 
crossed by a long range of towers, built by Ibraheem 
Basha, as outposts for the defence of this important 
position. Within their line stood the lonely walls of 
a large, square barrack ; the towers were what 
we sometimes call Martello — short, large, and 
round. 

" The level rays of the setting sun now streamed 
across the plain, and we came on the ruins of 
Derey'eeyah, filling up the whole breadth of the 
valley beneath. The palace walls, of unbaked 
brick, like the rest, rose close under the left or 
northern edge, but unroofed and tenantless ; a little 
lower down a wide extent of fragments showed 
where the immense mosque had been, and hard by, 
the market-place ; a tower on an isolated height 
was, I suppose, the original dwelling-place of the 
Sa'ood family, while yet mere local chieftains, before 
growing greatness transferred them to their imperial 
palace. The outer fortifications remained almost 
uninjured for much of their extent, with turrets and 
bastions reddening in the western light ; in other 
places the Egyptian artillery or the process of years 
had levelled them w^ith the earth ; within the town 
many houses were yet standing, but uninhabited ; 
and the lines of the streets from gate to gate were 
distinct as in a ground plan. From the great size 
of the town (for it is full half a mile in length, and 
not much less in breadth), and from the close pack- 
ing of the houses, I should estimate its capacity at 
above forty thousand indwellers. The gardens lie 
without, and still * living waved where man had 



232 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

ceased to live,' in full beauty and luxuriance, a deep 
green ring around the grey ruins. For although the 
Nedjeans, holding it for an ill omen to rebuild and 
re-inhabit a town so fatally overthrown, have trans- 
planted the seat of government, and with it the 
bulk of city population, to Ri'ad, they have not 
deemed it equally necessary to abandon the rich 
plantations and well watered fields belonging to the 
old capital ; and thus a small colony of gardeners 
in scattered huts and village dwellings close under 
the walls, protract the blighted existence of Derey- 



" While from our commanding elevation we gazed 
thoughtfully on this scene, so full of remembrances, 
the sun set, and darkness grew on. We naturally 
proposed a halt, but Aboo-'Eysa turned a deaf ear, 
and affirmed that a garden belonging to 'Abd-er- 
Rahman, already mentioned as grandson of the first 
Wahabee, was but a little farther before us, and 
better adapted to our night's rest than the ruins. 
In truth, three hours of brisk travelling yet inter- 
vened between Derey'eeyah and the place in ques- 
tion ; but our guide was unwilling to enter Derey- 
'eeyah in company of Persians and Syrians, Shi- 
ya'ees and Christians ; and this he afterwards con- 
fessed to me. For whether from one of those 
curious local influences which outlast even the 
change of races, and give one abiding color to the 
successive tenants of the same spot, or w*hether it 
be occasioned by the constant view of their fallen 
greatness and the triumph of their enemies, the 
scanty population of Derey'eeyah comprises some 



JOUBNET TO RFAD. 233 

of tlie bitterest and most bigoted fanatics that even 
'Aared can offer. Accordingly we moved on, still 
keeping to the heights, and late at night descended 
a little hollow, where, amid an extensive garden, 
stood the country villa of 'Abd-er-E-ahman. 

" We did not attempt to enter the house ; indeed, 
at such an hour no one was stirring to receive us. 
But a shed in the garden close by sufficed for tra- 
vellers who were all too weary to desire aught but 
sleep ; and this we soon found in spite of dogs and 
jackals, numerous here and throughout Nedjed. 

"From this locality to the capital was about four 
miles' distance. Our party divided next morning : 
the Na'ib and his associates remaining behind, 
while Barakat and myself, with Aboo-'Eysa, set off 
straight for the town, where our guide was to give 
notice at the palace of the approach of the Persian 
dignitary, that the honors due to his reception might 
meet him half way. At our request the Meccans 
staid also in the rear; we did not desire the 
equivocal effect of their company on a first appear- 
ance. 

" For about an hour we proceeded southward, 
through barren and undulating ground, unable to 
see over the country to any distance. At last we 
attained a rising eminence, and crossing it, came at 
once in full view of E-i'ad, the main o**oject of our 
long journey — the capital of Nedjed and half Ara- 
bia, its very heart of hearts. 

" Before us stretched a wild open valley, and in 
its foreground, immediately below the pebbly slope 
on whose summit we stood, lay the capital, largo 



234 TEAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

and square, crowned by high towers and strong 
walls of defence, a mass of roofs and terraces, where 
overtopping all frowned the huge but irregular pile 
of Feysul's royal castle, and hard by it rose the 
scarce less conspicuous palace, built and inhabited 
by his eldest son, 'Abdallah. Other edifices, too, of 
remarkable appearance broke here and there through 
the maze of grey roof-tops, but their object and in- 
dwellers were yet to learn. All around for full 
three miles over the surrounding plain, but more 
especially to the west and south, waved a sea of 
palm-trees above green fields and well-watered gar- 
dens ; while the singing, droning sound of the water- 
wheels reached us even where we had halted, at a 
quarter of a mile or more from the nearest town- 
walls. On the opposite side southwards, the valley 
opened out into the great and even more fertile 
plains of Yemamah, thickly dotted with groves and 
villages, among which the large town of Manfoohah, 
hardly inferior in size to Ri'ad itself, might be clearly 
distinguished. Farther in the background ranged 
the blue hills, the ragged Sierra of Yemamah, com- 
pared some thirteen hundred years since, by 'Amroo- 
ebn-Kelthoom the Shomerite, to drawn swords in 
battle array ; and behind them was concealed the 
immeasurable Desert of the South, or Dahna. On 
the west the valley closes in and narrows in its up- 
ward windings towards Derey'eeyah, while to the 
southwest the low mounds of Aflaj are the division 
between it and Wady Dowasir. Due east in the 
distance a long blue hne marks the farthest heights 
of Toweyk, and shuts out from view the low ground 



t 



I 



JOUBNET TO RFAD. 235 

of Hasa and the shores of the Persian Gulf. In all 
the countries which I have visited, and they are 
many, seldom has it been mine to survey a land- 
scape equal to this in beauty and in historical mean- 
ing, rich and full alike to eye and mind. But should 
any of my readers have ever approached Damascus 
from the side of the Anti-Lebanon, and surveyed 
the Ghootah from the heights above Mazzeh, they 
may thence form an approximate idea of the valley 
of Ri'ad when viewed from the north. Only this is 
wider and more varied, and the circle of vision here 
embraces vaster plains and bolder mountains ; while 
the mixture of tropical aridity and luxuriant verdure, 
of crowded population and desert tracks, is one that 
Arabia alone can present, and in comparison with 
which Syria seems tame, and Italy monotonous." 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

PALGRAVE's TRAVELS. — ADVENTURES IN RI'aD. 



B 



I AEAKAT and myself stopped our dromedaries 
a few minutes on the height to study and en- 
joy this noble prospect, and to forget the anxiety 
inseparable from a first approach to the lion's own 
den. Aboo-'Eysa, too, though not unacquainted 
with the scene, willingly paused with us to point out 
and name the main features of the view, and show 
us whore lay the onward road to his home in Hasa. 
We then descended the slope, and skirted the walls 
cf the first outlying plantations which gird the 
town. 

" With a little knot of companions walking by our 
side, and laughing and talking their fill, we entered 
on a byway leading between the vojsl stables on 
one hand, and a spacious garden belonging to 'Abd- 
el-Lateef, Kadee of the town, on the other. After a 
while we came out on the great cemetery, which 
spreads along the northeastern wall, and contains 
the population of many past years — low tombs, 
without stone or memorial, inscription or date. 

"This burial ground is intersected by several 



I 



ADVENTURES IN Rl'AD. 237 

tracks, leading to the different town gates ; we our- 
selves now followed a path ending at the north- 
eastern portal, a wide and high entrance, with thick 
square towers on either side ; several guardsmen, 
armed with swords, were seated in the passage. 
Aboo-'Eysa answered their challenge, and led us 
within the town. Here we found ourselves at first 
in a broad street, going straight to the palace ; on 
each side wei'e large houses, generally two stories 
high, wells for ablution, mosques .of various dimen- 
sions, and a few fruit-trees planted here and there 
in the courtyards. After advancing two hundred 
yards or rather more, we had on our right hand the 
palace of Abdallah, a recent and almost symmetri- 
cal construction, square in form, with goodly carved 
gates, and three stories of windows, one above the 
other. We contemplated and were contemplated 
by groups of negroes and servants, seated near the 
doors, or on the benches outside, in the cool of the 
morning shade. 

" At last we reached a great open square : its 
right side, the northern, consists of shops and ware- 
houses ; while the left is entirely absorbed by the 
huge abode of Nedjean royalty ; in front of us, and 
consequently to the west, a long covered passage, 
upborne high on a clumsy colonnade, crossed the 
breadth of the square, and reached from the palace 
to the great mosque, which it thus joins directly 
with the interior of the castle, and affords old Fey- 
sul a private and unseen passage at will from his 
own apartments to his official post at the Friday 
prayers, without exposing him on his way to vulgar 



\' 



238 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

curiosity, or perhaps to tlie dangers of treachery. 
For the fate of his father and of his great -uncle, his 
predecessors on the throne, and each of them 
pierced by the dagger of an assassin during public 
worship, has rendered Feysul very timid on this 
score, though not at prayer- time only. Behind this 
colonnade, other shops and warehouses make up 
the end of the square, or more properly parallel- 
ogram ; its total length is about two hundred paces, 
by rather more than half the same width. In the 
midst of this space, and under' the far-reaching 
shadow of the castle walls, are seated some fifty or 
sixty women, each with a stock of bread, dates, milk, 
vegetables, or firewood before her for sale. 

"But we did not now stop to gaze, nor indeed 
did we pay much attention to all this ; our first 
introduction to the monarch and the critical posi- 
tion before us took up all our tlioughts. So 
we paced on alongside of the long blind wall 
running out from the central keep, and looking 
more like the outside of a fortress than of a peace- 
ful residence, till we came near a low and narrow 
gate, the only entry to the palace. Deep sunk 
between the bastions, with massive folding-doors 
iron bound, though thrown open at this hour of 
the day, and giving entrance into a dark passage, 
one might easily have taken it for the vestibule of a 
prison ; while the number of guards, some black, 
some white, but all sword-girt, who almost choked 
the way, did not seem very inviting to those with- 
out, especially to foreigners. Long earth-seats 
lined the adjoining walls, and afforded a convenient 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 239 

waiting-place for visitors ; and here we took up our 
rest at a little distance from the palace gate ; but 
Aboo-'Ejsa entered at once to announce our arrival, 
and the approach of the Na'ib. 

" The first who drew near and saluted us was a 
tall meagre figure, of a sallow complexion, and an 
intelligent but slightly ill-natured and underhand 
cast of features. He was very well dressed, though 
of course without a vestige of unlawful silk in his 
apparel, and a certain air of conscious importance 
tempered the affability of his politeness. This was 
'Abd-el-'Azeez, whom, for want of a better title, I 
shall call the minister of foreign affairs, such being 
the approximate translation of his official style." 

"Accompanied by some attendants from the 
palace, he came stately up, and seated himself by 
our side. He next began the customary interroga- 
tions of whence and what, with much smiling 
courtesy and show of welcome. After hearing our 
replies, the same of course as those given elsewhere, 
he invited us to enter the precincts, and partake of 
his Majesty's coffee and hospitality, while he 
promised us more immediate communications from 
the king himself in the course of the day. 

" If my readers have seen, as most of them un- 
doubtedly will, the Paris Tuileries, they may here- 
by know that the whole extent of Feysul's palace 
equals about two thirds of that construction, and is 
little inferior to it in height ; if indeed we except 
the angular pyramidal roofs or extinguishers pecu- 
liar to the French edifice. But in ornament the 
Parisian pile has the better of it, for there is small 



240 TRAVELS m ARABIA, 

pretensions to architectural embellishment in this 
Wahabee Louvre. Without, within, every othei 
consideration has been sacrificed to strength and 
security ; and the outer view of Newgate, at any 
rate, bears a very strong resemblance to the general 
effect of Feysul's palace. 

" Aboo-'Eysa meanwhile, in company with the 
outriders sent from the palace, had gone to meet 
the Na'ib and introduce him to the lodgings pre- 
pared for his reception. Very much was the Per- 
sian astounded to find none of the royal family 
among those who thus came, no one even of high 
name or office ; but yet more was his surprise 
when, instead of immediate admittance to Feysul's 
presence and eager embrace, he was quietly led 
aside to the very guest-room whither we had been 
conducted, and a dinner not a whit more sumptuous 
than ours was set before him, after which he was 
very coolly told that he might pray for Feysul and 
retire to his quarters, while the king settled the 
day and hour whereon he would vouchsafe him the 
honor of an audience. 

" Afterwards, the minister of foreign affairs con- 
descended to come in person, and, sweetly smiling, 
informed us that our temporary habitation was 
ready, and that Aboo-'Eysa would conduct us 
tliither without delay. We then begged to know, 
if possible, the king's good will and pleasure 
regarding our stay and our business in the town. 
For on our first introduction we had duly stated, 
in the most correct Wahebee phraseology, that we 
had come to Ri'ad ' desiring the favor of God, and 



ADVENTURES IK EVAD. 241 

secondly of Fejsul ; and that we begged of God, 
and secondly of Feysul, permission to exercise in 
the town our medical profession, under the pro- 
tection of God, and in the next place of Feysul.' 
For Dogberry's advice to ' set God first, for God 
defend but God should go before such villains,' is 
here observed to the letter ; whatever is desired, 
purported, or asked, the Deity must take the lead. 
Nor this only, but even the subsequent mention of 
the creature must nowise be coupled with that of 
the Creator by the ordinary conjunction ' w',' that 
is, ' and,' since that would imply equality between 
the two — flat blasphemy in word or thought. Hence 
the disjunctive ' thumma,' or ' next after,' ' at a dis- 
tance,' must take the place of ' w',' under penalty of 
prosecution under the statute. * Unlucky the man 
who visits Nedjed without being previously well 
versed in the niceties of grammar,' said Barakat ; 
* under these schoolmasters a mistake might cost 
the scholar his head.' But of this more anon : to 
return to our subject, 'Abd-el-'Azeez, a true politi- 
cian, answered our second interrogation with a 
vague assurance of good will and unmeaning pa- 
tronage. Meantime the Na'ib and his train 
marched off in high dudgeon to their quarters, 
and Aboo-'Eysa gave our dromedaries a kick, 
made them rise, and drove them before us to our 
new abode." 

In the course of a day or two, the travellers dis- 
covered what a sensation the arrival of their cara- 
van had produced at court. The old king, Feysul, 
now in the 33d year of his reign, possessed all the 



212 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



i 



superstition and bigotry of the old Waliabees, and 
the sudden presence of Syrians, suspected of being 
Christians, Persians and Meccans, in his capital, 
was too much for him. He at once left the palace, 
took up his temporary residence in a house out- 
side the city, and a strong guard was posted around 
him until the court officials should have time to 
examine the strangers, discover, if possible, their 
secret designs, and report them to the king. The 
first spy was a shrewd and intelligent Affghan, a 
pretended convert to the Wahabee doctrine, who 
discovered nothing, and consequently made an 
unfavorable report. The second was a " man of 
zeal," one of a committee of twenty-two inquisitors, 
appointed by the king to exercise constant espion- 
age upon the inhabitants, with the power of punish- 
ing them at will for any infraction or neglect of the 
Wahabee discipline. Palgrave gives the following 
account of his visit : 

" Abbood, for such was his name, though I never 
met the Hke before or after in Arabia proper, how- 
ever common it may be in Syria and Lebanon, took 
a different and a more efficacious mode of espion- 
age than 'Abd-el-HaYneed had done before him. 
Affecting to consider us Mahometans, and learned 
ones too, he entered at once on religious topics, on 
the true character of Islam, its purity or corrup- 
tions, and inquired much after the present teaching 
and usages of Damascus and the North, evidently 
in the view of catching us in our words. But he 
had luckily encountered his match ; for every 
citation of the Koran we replied with two, and 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 243 

proved ourselves intimately acquainted with the 
' greater ' and the ' lesser ' polytheism of foreign 
nations and heterodox Mahometans, with the com- 
mentaries of Beydowee and the tales of the 
Hadeeth, till our visitor, now won over to confi- 
dence, launched out full sail on the sea of discus- 
sion, and thereby rendered himself equally instruc- 
tive and interesting to men who had nothing more 
at heart than to learn the tenets of the sect from 
one of its most zealous professors, nay, a Zelator in 
person. In short, he ended by becoming half a 
friend, and his regrets at our being, like other Da- 
mascenes, yet in the outer porch of darkness, were 
tempered by a hope, which he did not disguise, of 
at least putting a window in our porch for its better 
enlightenment." 

Next day, in the forenoon, while the travellers 
were sauntering about the market-place, they met 
the minister 'Abd-el-'Azeez, who had that morning 
returned to the capital. With . a smiling face and 
an air of great benignity he took them aside, 
and informed them the king did not consider Ri'ad 
a proper field for their medical skill ; that they had 
better at once continue their journey to Hofhoof, 
whither Aboo-'Eysa should conduct them straight- 
way ; and that'the king would furnish each of them 
with a camel, a new suit of clothes, and some 
money. To these arguments Palgrave could only 
answer that he greatly desired the profit to be 
expected from a few weeks of medical practice in 
Eli' ad, since his success there would give him an 
immediate reputation in Hofhoof, while his depart- 



244 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



ure might deprive liim of all repntation at the 
latter place. The minister promised to present his 
plea to Feysul, but gave him no hope of a favor- 
able answer. The order to leave was repeated, and 
then, as a last experiment, Palgrave sent to two of 
the ministers a pound of the fragrant wood, which 
is burned as pastilles in Arabia, and is highly 
prized by the upper classes. The next day he re- 
ceived permission to remain longer in Ri'ad, and 
exercise his profession. He thereupon took another 
residence, not so near the palace, and within con- 
venient reach of one of the city gates. Before 
describing the place, he gives the following ac- 
count of the famous Arabian coffee. 

" Be it then known, by way of prelude, that 
coffee though one in name is manifold in fact ; nor 
is every kind of berry entitled to the high qualifi- 
cations too indiscriminately bestowed on the com- 
prehensive genus. The best coffee, let cavillers say 
what they will, is that of the Yemen, commonly 
entitled ' Mokha,' from the main place of exporta- 
tion. Now^ I should be sorry to incur a lawsuit for 
libel or defamation from our wholesale or retail 
salesmen ; but were the particle not prefixed to 
the countless labels in London shop-windows that 
bear the name of the Bed Sea haven, they would 
have a more truthy import than what at present 
they convey. Very little, so little indeed as to be 
quite inappreciable, of the Mocha or Yemen berry 
ever finds its way westward of Constantinople. 
Arabia itself, Syria, and Egypt consume fully two 
thirds, and the remainder is almost exclusively 



ADVENTURES IN BFAD. 245 

absorbed by Turkish and Armenian oesophagi. 
Nor do these last get for their limited share the 
best or the purest. Before reaching the harbors of 
Alexandria, Jaffa, Beyrout, etc., for further expor- 
tation, the Mokhan bales have been, while yet on 
their way, sifted and resifted, grain by grain, and 
whatever they may have contained of the hard, 
rounded, half- transparent, greenish brown berry, 
the only one really worth roasting and pounding, 
has been carefully picked out by experienced 
fingers ; and it is the less generous residue of 
flattened, opaque, and whitish grains which alone, 
or almost alone, goes on board the shipping. So 
constant is this selecting process, that a gradation 
regular as the degrees on a map may be observed 
in the quality of Mokha, that is, Yemen, coffee 
even within the limits of Arabia itself, in proportion 
as one approaches to or recedes from Wadi Nejran 
and the neighborhood of Mecca, the first stages 
of the radiating mart. I have myself been times 
out of number an eye-witness of this sifting; the 
operation is performed with the utmost seriousness 
and scrupulous exactness, reminding me of the dili- 
gence ascribed to American diamond-searchers, 
when scrutinizing th e torrent sands for their minute 
but precious treasure. 

" The berry, thus qualified for foreign use, quits 
its native land on three main lines of export — that 
of the Red Sea, that of the inner Hedjaz, and that 
of Kaseem. The terminus of the first line is 
Egypt, of the second Syria, of the third Nedjed 
and Shomer. Hence Egypt and Syria are, of all 



246 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



countries without the frontiers of Arabia, the best 
supplied with its specific produce, though under the 
restrictions already stated ; and through Alexan- 
dria or the Syrian seaports, Constantinople and the 
North obtain their diminished share. But this 
last stage of transport seldom conveys the genuine 
article, except by the intervention of private 
arrangements and personal friendship or interest. 
Where mere sale and traffic are concerned, sub- 
stitution of an inferior quality, or an adulteration 
almost equivalent to substitution, frequently takes 
place in the different storehouses of the coast, till 
whatever Mokha-marked coffee leaves them for 
Europe and the West, is often no more like the 
real offspring of the Yemen plant than the log- 
wood preparations of a London fourth-rate retail 
wine-seller resemble the pure libations of an 
Oporto vineyard. 

" The second species of coffee, by some preferred 
to that of Yemen, but in my poor opinion inferior 
to it, is the growth of Abyssinia ; its berry is 
larger, and of a somewhat different and a less 
heating flavor. It is, however, an excellent species ; 
and whenever the rich land that bears it shall be 
permitted by man to enjoy the benefits of her 
natural fertility, it will probably become an object 
of extensive cultivation and commerce. With this 
stops, at least in European opinion and taste, the 
list of coffee, and begins the list of beans. 

" While we were yet in the Djowf, I described 
with sufficient minuteness how the berry is prepared 
for actual use ; nor is the process any way varied m 



ADVENTURES IN RFAB. 247 

Nedjed or other Arab lands. But in Nedjed an ad- 
ditional spicing of saffron, cloves, and the like, is 
still more common ; a fact which is easily explained 
by the want of what stimulus tobacco affords else- 
where. A second consequence of non-smoking 
among the Arabs is the increased strength of their 
coffee decoctions in Nedjed, and the prodigious fre- 
quency of their use ; to which we must add the 
larger ' finjans,' or coffee-cups, here in fashion. So 
sure are men, when debarred of one pleasure or 
excitement, to make it up by another." 

Palgrave gives the following picturesque descrip- 
tion of the Wahabee capital : " We wrap our head- 
gear, like true Arabs, round our chins, put on our 
grave-looking black cloaks, take each a long stick in 
hand, and thread the narrow streets intermediate 
between our house and the market-place at a fune- 
ral pace, and speaking in an undertone. Those 
whom we meet salute us, or we salute them ; be it 
known that the lesser number should always be the 
first to salute the greater, he who rides him who 
walks, he who walks him who stands, the stander 
the sitter, and so forth ; but never should a man 
salute a woman ; difference of age or even of rank 
between men does not enter into the general rules 
touching the priority of salutation. If those whom 
we have accosted happen to be acquaintances or 
patients, or should they belong to the latitudinarian 
school, our salutation is duly returned. But if, by 
ill fortune, they appertain to the strict and high 
orthodox party an under-look with a half-scowl in 



248 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

silence is their only answer to our greeting. Where- 
at we smile, Malvolio-like, and pass on. 

" At last we reach the market-place ; it is full of 
women and peasants, selling exactly what we want 
to buy, besides meat, fire- wood, milk, etc.; around 
are customers, come on errands like our own. We 
single out a tempting basket of dates, and begin 
haggling with the unbeautifui Phyllis, seated beside 
her rural store. We find the price too high. ' By 
Him who protects Feysul,' answers she, * I am the 
loser at that price.' We insist. ' By Him who 
shall grant Feysul a long life, I cannot bate it,' she 
replies. We have nothing to oppose to such tre- 
mendous asseverations, and accede or pass on, as 
the case may be. 

" Half of the shops, namely, those containing gro- 
cery, household articles of use, shoemakers' stalls 
and smithies, are already open and busily thronged. 
For the capital of a strongly centralized empire is 
always full of strangers, come will they nill they on 
their several affairs. But around the butchers' 
shops awaits the greatest human and canine crowd : 
my readers, I doubt not, know that the only licensed 
scavengers throughout the East are the dogs. Ned- 
jeans are great flesh-eaters, and no wonder, consid- 
ering the cheapness of meat (a fine fat sheep costs 
at most five shillings, often less) and the keenness of 
mountaineer appetites. I wish that the police regu- 
lations of the city would enforce a little more clean- 
liness about these numerous shambles ; every refuse 
is left to cumber the ground at scarce two yards' 
distance. But dogs and dry air much alleviate the 



ADVENTURES IN BFAD. 249 

nuisance — a remark I made before at Ha'yel and 
Bereydah ; it holds true for all Central Arabia. 

" Barakat and I resolve on continuing our walk 
through the town. Biad is divided into four quar- 
ters : one, the northeastern, to which the palaces of 
the royal family, the houses of the state officers, and 
the richer class of proprietors and government men 
belong. Here the dwelhngs are in general high, 
and the streets tolerably straight and not over- 
narrow ; but the ground level is low, and it is per- 
haps the least healthy locality of all. Next the 
northwestern, where we are lodged ; a large irregu- 
lar mass of houses, varying in size and keeping from 
the best to the worst ; here strangers, and often cer- 
tain equivocal characters, never wanting in large 
towns, however strictly regalated, chiefly abide ; 
here too are many noted for disaffection, and har- 
boring other tenets than those of the son of 'Abd- 
el-Wahal^ men prone to old Arab ways and customs 
in ' Church and State,' to borrow our own analogous 
phrase ; here are country chiefs, here Bedouins and 
natives of Zulphah and the outskirts find a lodging ; 
here, if anywhere, is tobacco smoked or sold, and 
the Koran neglected in proportion. However, I 
would not have my readers to think our entire neigh- 
borhood so absolutely disreputable. 

"But we gladly turn away our eyes from so 
dreary a view to refresh them by a survey of the 
southwestern quarter, the chosen abode of formal- 
ism and orthodoxy. In this section of Bi'ad inhabit 
the most energetic Zelators, here are the most irre- 
proachable five-prayers-a-day Nedjeans, and all the 



250 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



flower of Wahabee purity. Above all, here dwell 
the principal survivors of the family of the great re- 
ligious Founder, the posterity of 'Abd-el-Wahab 
escaped from the Egyptian sword, and free from 
every stain of foreign contamination. Mosques of 
primitive simplicity and ample space, where the 
great dogma, not however confined to Eii'ad, that 
' we are exactly in the right, and every one else is in 
the wrong,' is daily inculcated to crowds of auditors, 
overjoyed to find Paradise all theirs and none's but 
theirs ; smaller oratories of Musallas, wells for ab- 
lution, and Kaabah- directed niches adorn every cor- 
ner, and fill up every interval of hoase or orchard. 
The streets of this quarter are open, and the air 
healthy, so that the invisible blessing is seconded 
by sensible and visible privileges of Providence. 
Think not, gentle reader, that I am indulging in 
gratuitous or self-invented irony ; I am only rendeii- 
ing expression for expression, and almost word for 
word, the talk of true Wahabees, when describing 
the model quarter of their model city. This section 
of the town is spacious and well-peopled, and flour- 
ishes, the citadel of national and religious intole- 
rance, pious pride, and genuine Wahabeeism. 

"Kound the whole town run the walls, varying 
from twenty to thirty feet in height ; they are strong, 
in good repair, and defended by a deep trench and 
embankment. Bej^ond them are the gardens, much 
similar to those of Kaseem, both in arrangement 
and produce, despite the difference of latitude, here 
compensated by a higher ground level. But imme- 
diately to the south, in Yemamah, the eye remarks 



» 



■ADVENTURES IN RI'AD. 251 

a change in the vegetation to a more tropical as- 
pect ; of this, however, I will not say more for the 
present. 

" A striking feature in this southerly slope of the 
central plateau is the much greater abundance of 
water here than on its northern terrace in Sedeyr. 
This comparative moisture of the soil and of the 
atmosphere, the latter being, in fact, a consequence 
of the former, is first perceptible about Horeyme- 
lah, whence it increases progressively southward, 
till it attains its maximum in the Yemamah ; far- 
ther on towards Hareek and Dowasir, it again 
diminishes, partly I suppose, from the growing dis- 
tance from the mountainous district, partly from 
the vicinity of the Great Desert and its arid heat. 

"According to promise, Eboo-'Eysa played his 
part to bring us in patients and customers, and the 
very second morning that dawned on us in our new 
house, ushered in an invalid who proved a very 
godsend. This was no other than Djowhar, trea- 
surer of Feysul, and of the Wahabee empire. My 
readers may be startled to learn that this great 
functionary was jet black, a negro in fact, though 
not a slave, having obtained his freedom from Tur- 
kee, the father of the present king. He was tall, 
and for a negro, handsome ; about forty-five years 
of age, splendidly dressed, a point never neglected 
by wealthy Africans, whatever be their theoretical 
creed, and girt with a golden-hilted sword. ' But,' 
said he, * gold, though unlawful if forming a part of 
apparel or mere ornament, may be employed with 
a safe conscience in decorating weapons.' Many 



252 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

preachers nave, I believe, wasted time and ele- 
quence in attempting to persuade the ladies to mo- 
deration in dress. I would gladly consent to see 
them try their chance with a congregation of upper 
class negroes ; what might be the result I know 
not, but certainly Gabriel and the Wahabee have 
both made a complete failure in this respect. In all 
other points Djowhar was an excellent fellow, good 
humored, rather hot tempered, but tractable and 
confiding, like most 'people of his skin,' in Arab 
phrase. 

" The disease he was actually suffering under an- 
noyed him much, especially as Feysul desired to 
send him without delay on a government errand to 
Bahreyn, (where we afterwards met him,) a busi- 
ness which his bad state of health rendered him 
wholly unfit for. Thus, bettering his condition 
might be almost looked on as a national service. 
Aboo-'Eysa, an old acquaintance and friend of the 
chief treasurer's, introduced him, and placed him 
in great dignity on a carpet spread in the court- 
yard, where, with two or three other individuals of 
wealth and importance, he seated himself beside 
the patient, and launched out into a eulogium of 
my medical skill, which would have required some 
qualification if applied to Cullen himself; but it 
served wonderfully to encourage Djowhar, and thus 
predispose him for a cui'e. 

" After ceremonies and coffee, I took my dusky 
patient into the consulting room, where, by dint of 
questioning and surmise, for negroes in general are 
much less clear and less to the point than Arabs in 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 253 

their statements, I obtained the requisite elucidation 
of his case. The malady, though painful, was for- 
tunately one admitting of simple and efficacious 
treatment, so that I was able on the spot to promise 
him a sensible amendment of condition within a 
fortnight, and that in three weeks' time he should 
be in plight to undertake his journey to Bahreyn. I 
added that with so distinguished a personage I 
could not think of exacting a bargain and fixing the 
amount of fees ; the requital of my care sliould be 
left to his generosity. He then took leave, and was 
re-condacted to his rooms in the palace by his fellow- 
blacks of less degree." 

The next visitor was Abd-el-Kereem, of the 
oldest nobility of Nedjed, related to the raling 
family ; a bitter Wahabee, a strong, intelligent, bad, 
and dangerous man, who was both hated and feared 
by the people. His visit was a distinction for Pal- 
grave, yet an additional danger. The latter, how- 
ever, determined to draw as much information from 
him concerning Wahabee doctrine as he might be 
inclined to give; and, in reality, found him quite 
communicative. One day Palgrave asked him to de- 
fine the difference between the great sins and the little 
ones — that is, those to be punished in the next 
world, or at least deserving of it, and those whose 
penalty is remissible in this life. 

"Abd-el-Kereem doubted not that he had a sin- 
cere scholar before him, nor would refase his hand 
to a drowning man. So, putting on a profound air, 
and with a voice of first-class solemnity, he uttered 
his oracle, that ' the first of the great sins isi the 



254 TRAVELS JJV ARABIA, 

giving divine honors to a creature.' A hit, I may 
observe, at ordinary Mahometans, whose whole 
doctrine of intercession, whether vested in Mahomet 
or in 'Alee, is classed by Wahabees along with 
direct and downright idolatry. A Damascene Shekh 
would have avoided the equivocation by answering, 
* infidelity.' 

'" ' Of course,' I replied, ' the enormity of such a 
sin is beyond all doubt. But if this be the first, 
there must be a second ; what is it ?' 

" ' Drinking the shameful,' in English, * smoking 
tobacco,' was the unhesitating answer. 

" 'And murder, and adultery, and false witness ?' 
I suggested. 

" ' God is merciful and forgiving,' rejoined my 
friend ; that is, these are merely little sins. 

" ' Hence two sins alone are great, polytheism and 
smoking,' I continued, though hardly able to keep 
countenance any longer. And Abd-el-Kereem with 
the most serious asseveration replied that such was 
really the case. On hearing this, I proceeded 
humbly to entreat my friend to explain to me the 
especial wickedness inherent in tobacco leaves, that 
I might the more detest and eschew them here- 
after. 

" Accordingly he proceeded to instruct me, say- 
ing that, Firstly, all intoxicating substances are pro- 
hibited by the Koran ; but tobacco is an intoxicating 
substance — Ergo, tobacco is prohibited. 

" I insinuated that it was not intoxicating, and 
appealed to experience. Bat, to my surprise, my 
friend had experience too on his side, and had 



I 



ABVENTURES IB BFAD. 255 

ready at hand the most appalling tales of men 
falling down dead drunk after a single whiff of 
smoke, and of others in a state of bestial and 
habitual ebrietj from its use. Nor were his stories 
so purely gratuitous as many might at first imagine. 
The only tobacco known, when known, in Southern 
Nedjed, is that of Oman, a very powerful species. 
I was m^^self astonished, and almost ' taken in,' 
more than once, by its extraordinary narcotic effects, 
when I experienced them, in the coffee-houses of 
Bahreyn. 

" I cannot leave in silence 'Abd-el-Lateef, the 
great-grandson of the famed Wahabee, and now 
Kadee of the capital — a very, indeed remarkably, 
handsome and fair-spoken man, and bearing in his 
manners a sensible dash of Egyptian civilization. 
While yet a mere child he was carried to Egypt 
with the rest of his family by the conquering Basha, 
and there educated. Cairo society, and the inter- 
course of men more learned and less exclusive than 
those of Nedjed and Derey'eeyah, have taught him 
an ease and variety of conversation surprising in a 
Kadee of Ei'ad ; and thus enabled him to assume 
on occasion a liberality of phrase free from the cant 
terms and wearisome tautology of the sect which he 
heads. But such liberal semblance is merely a sur- 
face whitewash : the tongue may be the tongue of 
Egypt, but the heart and brain are ever those of 
Nedjed. Nor do I believe that the central moun- 
tains of Arabia contain a more dangerous man than 
'Abd-el-Lateef, or one who more cordially hates the 
progress he has witnessed, and in which he has to a 



256 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



certain degree participated. It is the embodied an- 
tipathy of bad to good, at least equal to that of good 
to bad." 

Palgrave furnishes a tolerably complete account 
of the provinces of Nedjed and the tribes which 
inhabit them. His concluding statement, however, 
embodies all which will interest the reader. 

" To sum up, we may say that the Wahabee em- 
pire is a compact and well-organized government, 
where centralization is fully understood and effectu- 
ally carried out, and whose main-springs and con- 
necting-links are force and fanaticism. There exist 
no constitutional checks either on the king or on his 
subordinates, save what the necessity of circum- 
stance imposes or the Koran prescribes. Its atmo- 
sphere, to speak metaphorically, is sheer despotism, 
moral, intellectual, religious, and physical. This 
empire is capable of frontier extension, and hence is 
dangerous to its neighbors, some of whom it is even 
now swallowing up, and will certainly swallow more 
if not otherwise prevented. Incapable of true in- 
ternal progress, hostile to commerce, unfavorable to 
arts and even to agriculture, and in the highest de- 
gree intolerant and aggressive, it can neither better 
itself nor benefit others ; while the order and calm 
which it sometimes spreads over the lands of its 
conquest, are described in the oft-cited Ubi solitudi- 
nemfaciunt pacem appellant of the Roman annalist. 

" In conclusion, I here subjoin a numerical list, 
taken partly from the government registers of 
Ei'ad, partly from local information, and containing 
the provinces, the number of the principal towns or 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 257 

villages, the population, and the military contingent, 
throughout the Wahabee empire. 

Provinces, Towns or villages. Population. Military muster. 

I.— 'Aared 15 110,000 6,000 

II.— Yemamah 32 140,000 4,500 

III.— Hareek 16 45,000 3,000 

IV.— Aflaj 12 14,000 1,200 

v.— Wady Dowasir 50 100,000 4,000 

VI.— Seley'yel 14 30,000 1,400 

VII.— Wosbem 20 80,000 4,000 

Vni— Sedeyr 25 140,000 5,200 

IX.— Kaseem 60 300,000 11,000 

X.— Hasa 50 160,000 7,000 

XI.— Kateef 22 100,000 



( 



316 1,219,000 47,300 

After a time, Palgrave was sent for by Abdallah, 
the eldest son of King Feysul, who pretended that 
he wished to learn something of the medical art. 
This led to a regular intercourse, which at least ena- 
bled the traveller to learn many things concerning 
the Wahabee government. Another important re- 
sult was an opportunity of visiting the royal stables, 
where the finest specimens of the famous Nedjed 
breed of horses are kept. Of these he gives th« 
following interesting description : 

*' The stables are situated some way out of the 
town, to the northeast, a little to the left of the road 
which we had followed at our first arrival, and not 
far from the gardens of 'Abd-er-Rahman the Waha- 
bee. They cover a large square space, about 150 
yards each way, and are open in the centre, Avith a 
long shed running round the inner walls ; under this 
covering the horses, about three hundred in num- 
ber when I saw them, are picketed during the night ; 



258 



rBA VELS IN ARABIA. 



in the daytime they may stretch their legs at pleas- 
ure within the central courtyard. The greater num- 
ber were accordingly loose ; a few, however, were 
tied up at their stalls ; some, but not many, had 
horse-cloths over them. The heavy dews which fall 
in Wady Haneefah do not permit their remaining 
with impunity in the open night air ; I w.as told also 
that a northerly wind will occasionally injure the 
animals here, no less than the land wind does now 
and then their brethren in India. About half the 
royal stud was present before me, the rest were out 
at grass ; Feysul's entire muster is reckoned at six 
hundred, or rather more. 

" No Arab dreams of tying up a horse by the 
neck ; a tether replaces the halter, and* one of the 
animal's hind legs is encircled about the pastern by 
a light iron ring, furnished with a padlock, and 
connected with an iron chain of two feet or therea- 
bouts in length, ending in a rope, which is fastened 
to the ground at some distance by an iron peg ; 
such is the customary method. But should the 
animal be restless and troublesome, a foreleg is put 
under similar restraint. It is well known that in Ara- 
bia horses are much less frequently vicious or re- 
fractory than in Europe, and this is the reaso i 
why geldings are here so rare, though not un- 
known. No particular prejudice, that I could dis- 
cover, exists against the operation itself ; only it is 
seldom performed, because not otherwise necessary, 
and tending, of course, to diminish the value of the 
animal. 

But to return to the horses now before us ; 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 259 

never had I seen or imagined so lovely a collec- 
tion. Their stature was indeed somewhat low ; I 
do not think that any came fully up to fifteen 
hands ; fourteen appeared to me about their aver- 
age, but they were so exquisitely well shaped that 
want of greater size seemed hardly, if at all, a de- 
fect. Eemarkably full in the haunches, with a 
shoulder of a slope so elegant as to make one, in 
the words of an Arab poet, ' go raving mad about 
it;' a little, a very little, saddle-backed, just the 
curve which indicates springiness without any weak- 
ness ; a head broad above, and tapering down to a 
nose fine enough to verify the phrase of ' drinking 
from a pint pot,' did pint pots exist in Nedjed ; a 
most intelligent and yet a singularly gentle look, 
full eye, sharp thorn-like little ear, legs fore and 
hind that seemed as if made of hammered iron, so 
clean and yet so well twisted with sinew ; a neat, 
round hoof, just the requisite for hard ground ; the 
tail set on, or rather thrown out at a perfect arch ; 
coats smooth, shining and light, the mane long, but 
not overgrown nor heavy, and an air and step that 
seemed to say, ' look at me, am I not pretty ?' their 
appearance justified all reputation, all value, all 
poetry. The prevailing color was chestnut or grey ; 
a light bay, an iron color, white or black, were 
less common ; full bay, flea-bitten or piebald, none. 
But if asked what are, after all, the specially 
distinctive points of the Nedjee horse, I should 
reply, the slope of the shoulder, the extreme clean- 
ness of the shank, and the full, rounded haunch, 
though every other part, too, has a perfection and d 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



harmony unwitnessed (at least by my eyes) any- 
where else. 

" Nedjee horses are especially esteemed for great 
speed and endurance of fatigue; indeed, in this 
latter quality, none come up to them. To pass 
twenty-four hours on the road without drink and 
without flagging is certainly something; but to 
keep up the same abstinence and labor conjoined 
under the burning Arabian sky for forty-eight 
hours at a stretch, is, I believe, peculiar to the ani- 
mals of the breed. Besides, they have a delicacy, 
I cannot say of mouth, for it is common to ride 
them without bit or bridle, but of feeling and obe- 
dience to the knee and thigh, to the slightest check 
of the halter and the voice of the rider, far surpass- 
ing whatever the most elaborate manege gives a 
European horse, though furnished with snaffle, 
curb, and all. I often mounted them at the invita- 
tion of their owners, and without saddle, rein, or 
stirrup, set them off at full gallop, wheeled them 
round, brought them up in mid career at a dead 
halt, and that wdthout the least difficulty or the 
smallest want of correspondence between the horse's 
movements and my own wiU; the rider on their 
back really feels himself the man-haK of a centaur, 
not a distinct being." 

During the last week in November, the Persian 
Na'ib, who had been little edified by his expe- 
riences m Nedjed, set off for Bagdad. In the 
meantime, Feysul had made great preparations 
towards collecting an army for the reduction of 
'the city of Oneyzah, (near Bereydah,) which still 



ADVENTURES IN RFAD. 261 

held out gallantly. Troops were summoned from 
the eastern coast and the adjoining provinces, and 
Sa'ood, the second son of Feysul, was ordered to 
bring them together at the capital, when the com- 
mand was to be given to Abdallah, the eldest son. 
Palgrave had then his only opportunity of seeing 
the old King of the Wahabees. 

" Sa'ood speedily arrived, and with him about 
two hundred horsemen ; the rest of his men, more 
than two thousand, were mounted on camels. When 
they entered Ki'ad, Feysul, for the first and last 
time during our stay, gave a public audience at the 
palace gate. It was a scene for a painter. There 
sat the blind old tyrant, corpulent, decrepit, yet im- 
posing, with his large, broad forehead, white beard, 
and thoughtful air, clad in all the simplicity of a 
Wahabee ; the gold hafted sword at his side his 
only ornament or distinction. Beside him the min- 
isters, the officers of his court, and a crowd of the 
nobler and wealthier citizens. Abdallah, the heir 
of the throne, was alone absent. Up came Sa'ood 
with the bearing of a hussar officer, richly clad 
in Cachemire shawls and a gold- wrought mantle, 
while man by man followed his red-dressed cava- 
liers, their spears over their shoulders, and their 
swords hanging down ; a musket too was slung be- 
hind the saddle of each warrior ; and the sharp 
dagger of Hareek gUttered in every girdle. Next 
came the common soldiers on camels or dromeda- 
ries, some with spears only, some with spears and 
guns, till the wide square was filled with armed 
men and gazing spectators, as the whole troop drew 



262 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 



up before the great autocrat, and Sa'ood alighted 
to bend and kiss his father's hand. ' God save 
Feysul ! God give the victory to the armies of the 
MusHms!' was shouted out on every side, and all 
faces kindled into the fierce smile of concentrated 
enthusiasm and conscious strength. Feysul rose 
from his seat and placed his son at his side ; an- 
other moment, and they entered the castle together. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PALGEAVES TEAVELS — HIS ESCAPE TO THE EASTEEN 
COAST. 

FOR a foreigner to enter Ri*ad is not always 
easy, but to get away from it is harder still ; 
Reynard himself would have been justly shy of 
venturing on this royal cave. There exists in the 
capital of Nedjed two approved means of barring 
the exit against those on whom mistrust may have 
fallen. The first and readiest is that of which it 
has been emphatically said, Stone-dead hath no 
felloiv. But should circumstances render the bonds 
of death inexpedient, the bonds of Hymen and a 
Ri'ad establishment may and occasionally do supply 
their office. By this latter proceeding, the more 
amiable of the two, Abdallah resolved to enchain 
us. 

" Accordingly, one morning arrived at our dwell- 
ing an attendant of the palace, with a smiling face, 
presage of some good in reserve, and many fair 
speeches. After inquiries about our health, com- 
b fort, well-being, etc., he added that Abdallah 



2G4 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 






or that, and begged us to accept of a small present. 
It was a fair sum of money, just twice so much as 
the ordinary token of good will, namely, four rials 
in place of two After which the messenger took 
his leave. Aboo-'Eysa had been present at the 
interview : ' Be on the look-out,' said he, * there is 
something wrong.' 

" That very afternoon Abdallah sent for me, 
and with abundance of encomiums and of promises, 
declared that he could not think of letting Bi'ad 
lose so valuable a physician, that I must accord- 
ingly take up a permanent abode in the capital, 
where I might rely on his patronage, and on all 
good things ; that he had already resolved on 
giving me a house and a garden, specifying them, 
with a suitable household, and a fair face to keep 
me company ; he concluded by inviting me to go 
without delay and see whether the new abode fitted 
me, and take possession. 

" Much and long did I fight off ; talked about a 
winter visit to the coast, and coming back in the 
spring ; tried first one pretext and then another ; 
but none would avail, and Abdallah continued to 
insist. To quiet him, I consented to go and see 
the house. For the intended Calypso, I had ready 
an argument derived from Mahometan law, which 
put her out of the question, but its explanation 
would require more space than these pages can 
afford. 

" The winter season was now setting in ; it was 
the third week in November ; and a thunder-storm, 
the first we had witnessed in Central Arabia, 



ESCAPE FROM HP AD. 265 

ushered in a marked change for cold in the tem- 
perature of Wady Haneefah. Rain fell abundan y, 
and sent torrents down the dry watercourses of the 
valley, changing its large hollows into temporary 
tanks. None of the streams showed, however, any 
disposition to reach the sea, nor indeed could they, 
for this part of Nedjed is entirely hemmed in to 
the east by the Toweyk range. The inhabitants 
welcomed the copious showers, pledges of fertility 
for the coming year, while at 'Oneyzah the same 
rains produced at least one excellent effect, but 
which I may well defy my readers to guess. The 
hostile armies, commanded by Zamil and Mo- 
hammed-ebn-Sa'ood, were drawn up in face of each 
other, and on the point of fierce conflict, when the 
storm burst on them, and by putting out the lighted 
matchlocks of either party, prevented the discharge 
of bullets and the effusion of blood." 

Abdallah, who hated his second brother, Sa'ood, 
and had many other fierce enmities in the capi- 
tal, then accidentally learned that Palgrave had 
employed a deadly poison (strychine) in making a 
remarkable cure. Thenceforth all his powers of 
persuasion were employed in endeavoring to pro- 
cure some of the drug ; but Palgrave, suspecting 
his real design, positively refused to let him have 
any. His rage was suddenly and strongly ex- 
pressed on his countenance, foreboding no good to 
the traveller, who took the first opportunity of 
returning to his house. 

"There Aboo-'Eysa, Barakat, and myself," he 
says, " immediately held council to consider what 



266 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

was now to be done. That an outbreak must 
shortly take place seemed certain ; to await it was 
dangerous, yet we could not safely leave the town 
in an over-precipitate manner, nor without some 
kind of permission. We resolved together to go on 
in qu et and caution a few days more, to sound the 
court, make our adieus at Feysul's palace, get a 
good word from Mahboob, (no difficult matter,) and 
then slip off without attracting too much notice. 
But our destiny was not to run so smoothly," 

Late in the evening of the 21st of November, 
Palgrave was sum r.oned to Abdallah's palace. 
The messenger refused to allow Barakat or Aboo- 
'Eysa to accompany him. The occasion seemed 
portentous, but disobedience was out of the ques- 
tion. Palgrave followed the messenger. On enter- 
ing the reception-room, h i found Ab lallah, Abd-el- 
Lateef, the successor of the Wahabee, Mahboob, 
and a few others. All were silent, and none re- 
turned his first salutation. " I saluted* Abdallah," 
says Palgrave, " who replied in an undertone, and 
gave me a signal to sit down at a little distance 
from him, but on the same side of the divan. My 
readers may suppose that I was not at the moment 
ambitious of too intimate a vicinity. 

" After an interval of silence, Abdallah turned 
half round towards me, and with his blackest look 
and a deep voice said, * I now know perfectly well 
what you are ; you are no doctors, you are Chris- 
tians, spies, and revolutionists, come hither to ruin 
our religion and state in behalf of those who sent 
you. The penalty for such as you is death, that 



ESCAPE FROM RFAD. 2G7 

you know, and I am determined to inflict it without 
delay.' 

" * Threatened folks live long,' thought I, and had 
no difficulty in showing the calm which I really felt. 
So looking him coolly in the face, I replied, 

* Istaghfir Allah,' literally, ' Ask pardon of God.' 
This is the phrase commonly addressed to one who 
has said something extremely out of place. 

" The answer was unexpected : he started, and 
said, * Why so ? ' 

" ' Because,' I rejoined, ' you have just now 
uttered a sheer absurdity. ' Christians,' be it so ; 
but ' spies,' ' revolutionists,' — as if we were not 
known by everybody in your town for quiet doc- 
tors, neither more nor less ! And then to talk 
about putting me to death ! You cannot, and you 
dare not.' 

" ' But I can and dare,' answered Abdallah, 

* and who shall prevent me ? you shall soon learn 
that to your cost.' 

" ' Neither can nor dare,' repeated I. * We are 
here your father's guests, and yours for a month 
and more, known as such, received as such. What 
have we done to justify a breach of the laws of 
hospitality in Nedjed ? It is impossible for you to 
do what you say,' continued I, thinking the while 
that it was a great deal too possible after all ; * the 
obloquy of the deed would be too much for you.' 

" He remained a moment thoughtful, then said, 

* As if any one need know who did it. I have the 
means, and can dispose " of you without talk or 
rumor. Those who are at my bidding can take a 



268 TBAVEL8 IN ARABIA. 

suitable time and place for that, without my name 
being ever mentioned in the affair.' 

" The advantage was now evidently on my side ; 
I followed it up, and said with a quiet laugh, 
* Neither is that within your power. Am I not 
known to your father, to all in his palace ? to your 
own brother Sa'ood among the rest ? Is not the fact 
of this my actual visit to you known without your 
gates? Or is there no one here?' added I, with a 
glance at Mahboob, * who can report elsewhere 
what you have just now said ? Better for you to 
leave off this nonsense ; do you take me for a child 
of four days old ? ' 

" He muttered a repetition of his threat. * Bear 
witness, all here present,' said I, raising my voice 
so as to be heard from one end of the room to the 
other, * that if any mishap befalls my companion 
or myself from E-i'ad to the shores of the Persian 
Gulf, it is all Abdallah's doing. And the conse- 
quences shall be on his head, worse consequences 
than he expects or dreams.' 

" The prince made no reply. All were silent ; 
Mahboob kept his eyes steadily fixed on the fire- 
place ; 'Abd-el-Lateef looked much and said noth- 
ing. 

" * Bring coffee,' called out Abdallah to the 
servants. Before a minute had elapsed, a black 
slave approached with one and only one coffee-cup 
in his hand. At a second sign from his master he 
came before me and presented it. 

" Of course the worst might be conjectured of so 
unusual and solitary a draught. But I thought it 



ESCAPE FROM BFAD. 269 

highly improbable that matters should have been 
so accurately prepared ; besides, his main cause of 
anger was precisely the refusal of poisons, a fact 
which implied that he had none by him ready for 
use. So I said, * Bismillah,'' took the cup, looked 
very hard at Abdallah, drank it off, and then said 
to the slave, ' Pour me out a second.' This he 
did ; I swallowed it, and said, * Now you may take 
the cup away.' 

"The desired effect was fully attained. Abd- 
allah's face announced defeat, while the rest of the 
assembly whispered together. The prince turned 
to 'Abd-el-Lateef and began talking about the 
dangers to which the land was exposed from spies, 
and the wicked designs of infidels for ruining the 
kingdom of the Muslims. The Kadee and his com- 
panions chimed in, and the story of a pseudo- 
Darweesh traveller killed at Derey'eeyah, and of 
another, (but who he was I cannot fancy ; perhaps 
a Persian, who had, said Abdallah, been also 
recognized for an intriguer, but had escaped to 
Mascat, and thus baifled the penalty due to his 
crimes,) were now brought forward and commented 
on. Mahboob now at last spoke, but it was to 
ridicule such apprehensions. * The thing is in 
itself unlikely,' said he, ' and were it so what 
harm could they do ? ' alluding to my companion 
and myself. 

" On this I took up the wcfrd, and a general con- 
versation ensued, in which I did my best to explode 
the idea of spies and spymanship, appealed to our 
own quiet and inoffensive conduct, got into a 



270 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

virtuous indignation against such a requital of evil 
for good after all the servdces which we had ren- 
dered court and town, and quoted yerses of the 
Koran regarding the wickedness of ungrounded 
suspicion, and the obligation of not judging ill 
without clear evidence. Abdallah made no direct 
answer, and the others, whatever they may have 
thought, could not support a charge abandoned by 
their master. 

" What amused me not a little, was that the Waha- 
bee prince had after all very nearly hit the right 
nail on the head, and that I was snubbing him only 
for having guessed too well. But there was no 
help for it, and I had the pleasure of seeing that, 
though at heart unchanged in his opinion about us, 
he was yet sufficiently cowed to render a respite 
certain, and our escape thereby practicable. 

" This kind of talk continued awhile, and I pur- 
posely kept my seat, to show the unconcern of 
innocence, till Mahboob made me a sign that I 
might safely retire. On this I took leave of Abd- 
allah and quitted the palace unaccompanied. It 
was now near midnight, not a light to be seen in 
the houses, not a sound to be heard in the streets ; 
the sky too was dark and overcast, till, for the first 
time, a feeling of lonely dread came over me, and I 
confess that more than once I turned my head to 
look and see if no one was following with ' evil,' 
as Arabs say, in his hand. But there was none, 
and I reached the quiet alley and low door where a 
gleam through the chinks announced the anxious 
watch of my companions, who now opened the 



ESCAPE FROM RI'AD. 271 

entrance, overjoyed at seeing me back sound and 
safe from so critical a parley. 

" Our plan for the future was soon formed. A day 
or two we were yet to remain in Bi'ad, lest haste 
should seem to imply fear, and thereby encourage 
pursuit. But during that period we would avoid 
the palace, out-walks in gardens or after nightfall, 
and keep at home as much as possible. Mean- 
while Aboo-'Eysa was to get his dromedaries ready, 
and put them in a courtyard immediately adjoining 
the house, to be laden at a moment's notice. 

" A band of travellers was to leave Ri'ad for Hasa 
a few days later. Aboo-'Eysa gave out publicly 
that he would accompany them to Hofhoof, while 
we were supposed to intend following the northern 
or Sedeyr track, by which the Na'ib, after many 
reciprocal farewells and assurances of lasting friend- 
ship, should w^e ever meet again, had lately de- 
parted. Mobeyreek, a black servant in Aboo- 
'Eysa's pay, occupied himself diligently in feeding 
up the camels for their long march with clover and 
vetches, both abundant here ; and we continued our 
medical avocations, but quietly, and without much 
leaving the house. 

"During the afternoon of the 24th we brought 
three of Aboo-'Eysa's camels into our courtyard, shut 
the outer door, packed and laded. We then awaited 
the moment of evening prayer ; it came, and the 
voice of the Mu*eddineen summoned all good Wa- 
habees, the men of the town-guard not excepted, to 
the different mosques. When about ten minutes 
had gone by, and all might be supposed at their 



272 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



prayers, we opened our door. Mobeyreek gave a 
glance up and down the street to ascertain that 
no one was in sight, and we led out the camels. 
Aboo-'Eysa accompanied us. Avoiding the larger 
thoroughfares, we took our way by by-lanes and 
side passages towards a small town-gate, the nearest 
to our house, and opening on the north. A late 
comer fell in with us on his way to the Mesjid, and 
as he passed summoned us also to the public 
service. But Aboo-'Eysa unhesitatingly replied, 
* We have this moment come from prayers,' and 
our interlocutor, fearing to be himself too late and 
thus to fall under reprehension and punishment, 
rushed off to the nearest oratory, leaving the road 
clear. Nobody was in watch at the gate. "We 
crossed its threshold, turned southeast, and under 
the rapid twilight reached a range of small hillocks, 
behind which we sheltered ourselves till the stars 
came out, and the * wing of night,' to quote Arab 
poets, spread black over town and country. 

" So far so good. But further difficulties remained 
before us. It was now more than ever absolutely 
essential to get clear of Nedjed unobserved, to put 
the desert between us and the Wahabee court and 
capital ; and no less necessary was it that Aboo- 
'Eysa, so closely connected as he was with Ei'ad 
and its government, should seem nohow impli- 
cated in our unceremonious departure, nor any way 
concerned with our onward movements. In a word, 
an apparent separation of paths between him and us 
was necessary, before we could again come together 
and complete the remainder of our explorations. 



ESCAPE FROM El 'AD. 273 

" In order to manage this, and while ensuring our 
own safety to throw a little dust in Wahabee eyes, 
it was agreed that before next morning's sunrise 
Aboo-'Eysa should return to the town, and to his 
dwelling, as though nothing had occurred, and 
should there await the departure of the great mer- 
chant caravan, mentioned previously, and composed 
mainly of men from Hasa and Kateef, now bound 
for Hofhoof. This assemblage was expected to start 
within three days at latest. Meanwhile our friend 
should take care to show himself openly in the pal- 
aces of Feysul and Abdallah, and if asked about 
us should answer vaguely, with the off-hand air of 
one who had no further care regarding us. We 
ourselves should in the interim make the best of our 
way, with Mobeyreek for guide, to Wady Soley' , and 
there remain concealed in a given spot, till Aboo- 
'Eysa should come and pick us up. 

" All this was arranged ; at break of dawn, Aboo- 
'Eysa took his leave, and Barakat, Mobeyreek, and 
myself were once more high perched on our dromeda- ♦ 
ries, their heads turned to the southeast, keeping the 
hillock range between us and Ri'ad, which we saw no 
more. Our path led us over low undulating 
ground, a continuation of Wady Haneefah, till after 
about four hours' march we were before the gates 
of Manfoohah, a considerable town, surrounded by 
gardens nothing inferior in extent and fertility to 
those of Ri'ad ; but its fortifications, once strong, 
have long since been dismantled and broken down 
by the jealousy of the neighboring capital. 

After winding here and there, we reached the spot 



274 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

assigned by Aboo-'Ejsa for our liiding-place. It 
was a small sandy depth, lying some way off the 
beaten track, amid hillocks and brushwood, and 
without water ; of this latter article we had taken 
enough in the goat-skins to last us for three days. 
Here we halted, and made up our minds to patience, 
and expectation. 

" Two days passed drearily enough. We could not 
but long for our guide's arrival, nor be wholly with- 
out fear on more than one score. Once or twice a 
stray peasant stumbled on us, and was much sur- 
prised at our encampment in so droughty a locality. 
Sometimes leaving our dromedaries crouching down, 
and concealed among the shrubs, we wandered up 
the valley, climbed the high chalky cliffs of Toweyk, 
to gain a distant glimpse of the blue sierra of Ha- 
reek in the far south, and the white ranges of 
Toweyk north and east. Or we dodged the nume- 
rous nor over-shy herds of gazelles, not for any 
desire of catching them, but simply to pass the time 
and distract the mind weary of conjecture. So the 
hours went by, till the third day brought closer ex- 
pectation and anxiety, still increasing while the sun 
declined, and at last went down ; yet nobody ap- 
peared. But just as darkness closed in, and we 
were sitting in a dispirited group beside our little 
fire, for the night air blew chill, Aboo-'Eysa came 
suddenly up, and all was changed for question and 
answer, for cheerfulness and laughter. 

" Early on November 28th we resumed our march 
through a light valley-mist, and soon fell in with our 
companions of the road. The first day led us out 



I 



ESCAPE FROM BFAD. 275 

of Wady Soley.' We traversed the outskirting plan- 
tations of Salemee'yah, a large fortified village. 
Much to my regret, our caravan passed on without 
halting, and soon after, turning a little to the north, 
we entered a long gorge cleft in the limestone wall 
of Toweyk, and mounted for about three hundred 
feet till we came on a high broad steppe, where a 
scanty pasturage, just enough to brown the chalky 
soil here and there, maintained a few herds of sheep- 
like goats, or goat-like sheep ; while the dreary 
ascents and descents reminded me of scenes in 
Scotland, save that fir and pine were here wanting. 
We were long in traversing this waste, until towards 
evening we came on a patch of greener soil, and a 
cluster of wells, the Lakey'yat by name, and here we 
encamped for a very cold night. 

" Next morning the whole country, hill and dale, 
trees and bushes, was wrapped in a thick blanket of 
mist, fitter for Surrey than for Arabia. So dense 
was the milky fog, that we fairly lost our way, and 
went on at random, shouting and hallooing, driving 
our beasts now here, now there, over broken ground 
and amid tangling shrubs, till the sun gained 
strength, and the vapor cleared off, showing us the 
path at some distance on our right. Before we had 
followed it far, we saw a black mass advancing from 
the east to meet us. It was the first division of the 
Hasa troops on their way to Ei'ad ; they were not 
less than four or five hundred in number. Like true 
Arabs, they marched with a noble contempt of 
order and discipline — ^walking, galloping, ambling, 
singing, shouting, alone or in bands, as fancy led ; 



276 



TRAVELS JiY ARABIA. 



We interchanged a few words of greeting with these 
brisk boys, who avowed, without hesitation or 
shame, that they should much have preferred to 
stay at home, and that enforced necessity, not any 
military or religious ardor, was taking them to the 
field. We laughed, and wished them Zamil's head, 
or him theirs, whereon they laughed also, shouted, 
and passed on. 

" Whilst hereabouts, we caught a magnificent 
southward view of the Hareek, to which we were 
now opposite, though separated from it by a streak 
of desert. Its hills lie east and west in a ragged and 
isolated chain, which was apparently sixty miles or 
more in length. Thus girdled by the desert, Ha- 
reek must needs be a very hot district ; indeed, its 
name (literally, * burning') implies no less, and the 
dusky tint of its inhabitants confirms the fact. We 
could not at such a distance distinguish any towns 
or castles in particular ; only the situation of the cap- 
ital, Hootah, was pointed out to us by the knowing 
ones of our band. It w^as curious also to see how 
suddenly, almost abruptly, Djebel Toweyk ended in 
the desert, going down in a rapid series of precipi- 
tous steps, the last of which pkmges sheer into the 
waste of sand. Toweyk is here mainly limestone, 
but in some spots iron ore is to be found, in some 
copper ; Aboo-'Eysa pointed out to us a hill, the 
appearance of w4iich promised the latter metal. 

" On w^e went, but through a country of much 
more varied scenery than what w6 had traversed 
the day before, enjoying the * pleasure situate in 
hill and dale,' till we arrived at the foot of a high 



ESCAPE FROM BFAD, 277 

white cliff, almost lik'e that of Dover ; but these 
crags, instead of having the sea at their foot, over- 
looked a wide valley full of trees, and bearing 
traces of many violent winter torrents from east to 
west ; none were now flowing. Here we halted, and 
passed an indifferent night, much annoyed by *, chill 
November's surly blast,' hardly less ungenial here 
than on the banks of Ayr, though sweeping over a 
latitude of 25°, not 56°. 

" Before the starlight had faded from the cold 
morning sky, we were up and in movement, for a 
long march was before us. After a little parleying, 
so to speak, with the mountain, we climbed it by a 
steep winding path, hard of ascent to the camels, of 
whom Arabs report that when asked which they like 
best, going up hill or going down, they answer, * A 
curse light on them both.' At sunrise we stood on 
the last, and here the highest ledge of Toweyk, that 
long chalky wall which bounds and backs up Ned- 
jed on the east ; beyond is the desert, and then the 
coast. The view now opened to us was very exten- 
sive, and the keen air made all the more sensible 
our elevation above the far-off plains, that hence 
showed like a faintly-ribbed sea-surface to the west. 
Neither man nor beast, tree nor shrub, appeared 
around ; marl and pebbles formed the plateau, all 
dry and dreary under a cold wind and a hot sun. 

" After about three hours of level route we began 
to descend, not rapidly, but by degrees, and at noon 
we reached a singular depression, a huge natural 
basin, hollowed out in the limestone rock, with 
tracks resembling deep trenches leading to it from 



278 



TRAVELS m ARABIA. 



every side. At the bottom of this crater-like valley 
were a dozen or more wells, so abundant in their 
supply that they not unfrequently overflow the 
whole space, and form a small lake ; the water is 
clear and good, but no other is to be met with on 
the ejitire line hence to Hasa. 

" For the rest of the day we continued steadily to 
descend the broad even slope, whose extreme bar- 
renness and inanimate monotony reminded me of 
the pebbly uplands near Ma' an on the opposite side 
of the peninsula, traversed by us exactly seven 
months before. The sun set, night came on, and 
many of the travellers would gladly have halted, 
but Aboo-'Eysa insisted on continuing the march. 
We were now many hundred feet lower than the 
crest behind us, and the air felt warm and heavy, 
when we noticed that the ground, hitherto hard be- 
neath our feet, was changing step by step into a 
light sand, that seemed to encroach on the rocky 
soil. It was at first a shallow ripple, then deepened, 
and before long presented the well known ridges and 
undulations characteristic of the land ocean when 
several fathoms in depth. Our beasts ploughed la- 
boriously on through the yielding surface ; the night 
was dark, but starry, and we could just discern 
amid the shade a white glimmer of spectral sand- 
hills, rising around us on every side, but no track 
or indication of a route. 

" It was the great Dahna, or * Eed Desert,' the 
bugbear of even the wandering Bedouin, and never 
traversed by ordinary wayfarers without an appre- 
hension which has too often been justified by fatal 



ESCAPE FROM RFAD. 279 

incidents. So light are the sands, so capricious the 
breezes that shape and reshape them daily into un- 
stable hills and valleys, that no traces of preceding 
travellers remain to those who follow ; while intense 
heat and glaring light reflected on all sides combine 
with drought and weariness to confuse and bewilder 
the adventurer, till he loses his compass and wan- 
ders up and down at random amid a waste solitude 
which soon becomes his grave. Many have thus 
perished ; even whole caravans have been known to 
disappear in the Dahua without a vestige ; till the 
wild Arab tales of demons carrying off wanderers, 
or ghouls devouring them, obtain a half credit 
among many accustomed elsewhere to laugh at 
such fictions. 

" For, after about three hours of night travelling, 
or rather wading, among the sand-waves, till men 
and beasts alike were ready to sink for weariness, a 
sharp altercation arose between Aboo-'Eysa and El- 
Ghannam, each proposing a different direction of 
march. We all halted a moment, and raised our 
eyes, heavy with drowsiness and fatigue, as if to see 
which of the contending parties was in the right. 
It will be long before I forget the impression of that 
moment. Above us was the deep black sky, 
spangled with huge stars of a brilliancy denied to 
all but an Arab gaze, while what is elsewhere a ray 
of the third magnitude becomes here of the first 
amid the pure vacuum of a mistless, vaporless air ; 
around us loomed high ridges, shutting us in before 
and behind with their white ghost-like outlines ; be-- 
low our feet the lifeless sand, and everywhere a 



280 



TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 



silence that seemed to belong to some strange and 
dreamy world where man might not venture. 

" Next morning we resumed our course, but now 
under the sole guidance of Aboo-'Eysa, to whom 
our band, confiding in his superior conversance with 
this wild region, had unanimously agreed to entrust 
themselves till we should reach the opposite bank. 
How our leader contrived to direct his steps would 
be hard to tell ; the faculty of keeping one's nose in 
the right direction, when neither eyes nor ears can 
afford any assistance, is, I suppose, one of the many 
latent powers of human nature, only to be brought 
out by circumstance and long exercise. When not 
far from the midmost of the Dahna, we fell in with 
a few Bedouins, belonging to the Aal-Morrah clan, 
sole tenants of this desert ; they were leading their 
goats to little spots of scattered herbage and shrubs 
which here and there fix a precarious existence in 
the hollows of the sands. 

" Theirs is the great desert from Nedjed to Had- 
ramaut. Not that they actually cover this immense 
space, a good fourth of the peninsula, but that they 
have the free and undisputed range of the oases 
which it occasionally offers, where herbs, shrubs, 
and dwarf-palms cluster round some well of scant 
and briny water. These oases are sufficiently 
numerous to preserve a stray Bedouin or two from 
perishing, though not enough so to become land- 
marks for any regular route across the central 
Dahna, from the main body of which runs out the 
long and broad arm which we were now traversing. 

"Another night's bivouac, and then again o"ver 



ESCAPE FROM RPAD. 281 

the white down-sloping plain. At last a change en- 
sued : abruptly chalky hills and narrow gorges 
bounded our way, till at the bottom of a hollow we 
came on a large solitary tree, with more thorns than 
leaves, and in hermit loneliness. 

" A little farther on we entered the great valley, 
known by the name of Wady Farook, which, like 
all other leading geographical features of this re- 
gion, whether mountain or plain, runs from north to 
south. We descended into this valley about noon, 
crossed it not altogether without anxiety, and near 
sunset climbed the opposite bank, and began to 
thread the coast-range of Hasa. These hills attain, 
after my very rough observations, about fourteen 
hundred feet above the sea-level, and about four 
hundred above the desert on the west, which would 
thus be itself about a thousand feet higher than the 
coast. Their sides are often eaten out into caverns, 
and their whole look is fanciful and desolate in the 
extreme. 

" It was now three days and a half since our last 
supply of water, and Aboo-'Eysa was anxious to 
reach the journey's end without delay. As darkness 
closed around we reached the furthermost heights. 
Hence we overlooked the plains of Hasa, but could 
distinguish nothing through the deceptive rays of 
the rising moon; we seemed, to gaze into a vast 
milky ocean. After an hour's halt for supper, we 
wandered on, now up, now down, over pass and 
crag, till a long corkscrew descent down the precipi- 
tous sea-side of the mountain for a thousand feet 
or near it, placed us fairly upon the low level of 



282 TRAVAILS IN ARABIA 

Hasa, and within tlie warm damp air of the sea- 
coast. 

" The ground glimmered white to the moon, and 
gave a firm footing to our dromedaries, who, by 
their renewed agihty, seemed to partake in the joy 
Qf their riders, and to understand that rest was near. 
We were, in fact, all so eager to find ourselves at 
home and homestead, that although the town of 
Hofhoof, our destined goal, was yet full fifteen 
miles to the northeast, we pressed on for the capital. 
And there, in fact, we should have all arrived in a 
body before day-dawn, had not a singular occur- 
rence retarded by far the greater number of our 
companions. 

" Soon after, the crags in our rear had shut out, 
perhaps for years, perhaps forever, the desert and 
Central Arabia from our view, while before and 
around us lay the indistinct undulations and uncer- 
tain breaks of the great Hasa plain, when on a 
sloping bank at a short distance in front we dis- 
cerned certain large black patches, in strong contrast 
with the white glister of the soil around, and at the 
same time our attention was attracted by a strange 
whizzing like that of a flight of hornets, close along 
the ground, while our dromedaries capered and 
started as though struck with sudden insanity. The 
cause of all this was a vast swarm of locusts, here 
alighted in their northerly wanderings from their 
birthplace in the Dahna ; their camp extended far 
and wide, and we had already disturbed their out- 
posts. These insects are wont to settle on the 
ground after sunset, and there, half stupefied by the 



ESCAPE FROM RFAD. 283 

night chill, to await the morning rays, which warm 
them once more into life and movement. This time 
our dromedaries did the work of the sun, and it 
would be hard to say which of the two were the 
most frightened, they or the locusts. It was truly 
laughable to see so huge a beast lose his wits for 
fear at the flight of a harmless, stingless insect ; of 
all timid creatures none equals the ' ship of the 
desert ' for cowardice, 

' The swarm now before us was a thorough god- 
send for our Arabs, on no account to be neglected. 
Thirst, weariness, all was forgotten, and down the 
riders leapt from their starting camels ; this one 
spread out a cloak, that one a saddle-bag, a third 
his shirt, over the unlucky creatures destined for the 
morrow's meal. Some flew away whirring across 
our feet, others were caught and tied up in cloths 
and sacks ; Cornish wreckers at work about a 
shattered East Indiaman would be beaten by Ghan- 
nam and his companions with the locusts. How- 
ever, Barakat and myself felt no special interest in 
the chase, nor had we much desire to turn our dress 
and accoutrements into receptacles for living game. 
Luckily Aboo-'Eysa still retained enough of his 
North Syrian education to be of our mind also. Ac- 
cordingly we left our associates hard at work, turned 
our startled and still unruly dromedaries in the 
direction of Hofhoof, and set off full speed over the 
plain. 

" It ^\^;as not till near morning that we saw before 
us in indistinct row the long black lines of the im- 
mense date-groves that surround Hofhoof. Then, 



I 



284 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

winding on amid rice grounds and cornfields, we left 
on our right an. isolated fort, (to be described by- 
day light,) passed some scattered villas, with their 
gardens, approached the ruined town walls, and 
entered the southern gate, now open and unguarded. 
Farther on a few streets brought us before the door 
of Aboo-'Eysa's house, our desired resting-place. 

" It was still night. All was silent in the street 
and house, at the entrance of which we now stood ; 
indeed, none but the master of a domicile could 
think of knocking at such an hour, nor was Aboo- 
'Eysa expected at that precise moment. With much 
difficulty he contrived to awake the tenants ; next 
the shrill voice of the lady was heard within in 
accents of joy and welcome ; the door at last 
opened, and Aboo-'Eysa invited us into a dark pas- 
sage, where a gas-light would have been a remark- 
able improvement, and by this ushered us into the 
k'hawah. Here we lighted a fire, and after a hasty 
refreshment all lay down to sleep, nor awoke till the 
following forenoon. 



I 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

PALGEAVE's travels. — EASTEKN ARABIA.— CON- 
CLUSION. 

OUR stay at Hofhoof was very pleasant and 
interesting, not indeed through pei'sonal inci- 
dents and hairbreadth escapes — of which we had 
our fair portion at Ei'ad and elsewhere — but in the 
information here acquired, and in the novel charac- 
ter of everything around us, whether nature, art, or 
man. Aboo-'Eysa was very anxious that we should 
see as much as possible of the country, and procured 
us all means requisite for so doing, while the shelter 
of his roof, and the precautions which he adopted 
or suggested, obviated whatever dangers and incon- 
veniences we had experienced in former stages of 
the journey. Besides, the general disposition of the 
inhabitants of Hasa is very different from that met 
with in Nedjed, and even in Shomer or Djowf, and 
much better adapted to make a stranger feel himself 
at home. A sea-coast people, looking mainly to 
foreign lands and the ocean for livelihood and com- 
merce, accustomed to see among them not unfre- 
quently men of dress, manners, and religion differ- 
ing from their own, many of them themselves tra- 



286 TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 

Tellers or voyagers to Basrah, Bagdad, Bahreyn, 
Oman, and some even farther, they are commonly 
free from that half- wondering, half- suspicious feel- 
ing which the sight of a stranger occasions in the 
isolated, desert-girded centre ; in short, experience, 
that best of masters, has gone far to unteach 
the lessons of ignorance, intolerance, and national 
aversion. 

Hofhoof, whose ample circuit contained during 
the last generation about thirty thousand inhabi- 
tants, now dwindled to twenty-three or twenty-four 
thousand, is divided into three quarters or districts. 
The general form of the town is that of a large oval. 
The public square, an oblong space of about three 
hundred yards in length by a fourth of the same in 
width, occupies the meeting point of these quarters ; 
the Kot lies on its northeast, the Rifey'eeyah on the 
northwest and west, and the Na'athar on the east 
and south. In this last quarter was our present 
home ; moreover, it stood in the part farthest 
removed from the Kot and its sinister influences, 
while it was also sufficiently distant from the over- 
turbulent neighborhood of the Eifey'eeyah, the 
centre of anti-Wahabee movements, and the name 
of which alone excited distrust and uneasiness in 
Nedjean minds. 

" The Kot itself is a vast citadel, surrounded by a 
deep trench, with walls and towers of unusual 
height and thickness, earth-built with an occasional 
intermixture of stone, the work of the old Carma- 
thian rulers ; it is nearly square, being about one 
third of a mile in length by one quarter in breadth. 



EASTERN ARABIA, 287 

Three sides of this fortress are provided each with 
a central gate ; on the fourth or northern side a 
small but strong fortress forms a sort of keep ; it is 
square, and its towers attain more than forty feet in 
elevation, or about sixty, if we reckon from the 
bottom of the outer ditch. 

" The towers, fifteen or sixteen on each side of 
the Kot, are mostly round, and provided with wind- 
ing stairs, loopholes, and machicolations below the 
battlements; the intervening walls have similar 
means of defence. The trench without is for the 
greatest part dry, but can be filled with water from 
the garden wells beyond when occasion requires ; 
the portals are strong and well guarded. 

*' On the opposite side of the square, and conse- 
quently belonging to the Rifey'eeyah, is the vaulted 
market-place, or ' Keysareeyah,' a name by which 
constructions of this nature must henceforth be 
called up to Mascat itself, though how this Latinism 
found its way across the peninsula to lands which 
seem to have had so little commerce with the Koman 
or Byzantine empires, I cannot readily conjecture. 
This Keysareeyah is in form a long barrel-vaulted 
arcade, with a portal at either end ; the folding 
doors that should protect the entrances have here in 
Hofhoof been taken away, elsewhere they are always 
to be found. The sides are composed of shops, set 
apart in general for wares of cost, or at least what 
is here esteemed costly ; thus weapons, cloth em- 
broidery, gold and silver ornament, and analogous 
articles, are the ordinary stock-in-hand in the Key- 
sareeyah. Around it cluster several alleys, roofed 



288 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

with palm-leaves against the heat, and tolerably 
symmetrical ; in the shops we may see the merchan- 
dise of Bahreyn, Oman, Persia, and India exposed 
for sale, mixed with the manufactured produce of 
the country ; workshops, smithies, carpenters' and 
shoemakers' stalls, and the like, are here also. In 
the open square itself stand countless booths for 
the sale of dates, vegetables, wood, salted locusts, 
and small ware of many kinds. 

" The Rifey'eeyah, or noble quarter, covers a con- 
siderable extent, and is chiefly composed of tolerable, 
in some places of even handsome, dwellings. The 
comparative elegance of domestic architecture in 
Hofhoof is due to the use of the arch, which, after 
the long interval from Ma'an to Hasa, now at last 
reappears, and gives to the constructions of this 
province a lightness and a variety unknown in the 
monotonous and heavy piles of Nedjed and Shomer. 
Another improvement is that the walls, whether of 
earth or stone, or of both mixed, as is often the 
case, are here very generally coated with fine white 
plaster, much resembling the ' chunam ' of Southern 
India ; ornament, too, is aimed at about the door- 
ways and the ogee-headed windows, and is some- 
times attained. 

" The Na'athar is the largest quarter ; it forms, 
indeed, a good half of the town, and completes its 
oval. In it every description of dwelling is to be 
seen — for rich and poor, for high and low, palace or 
hovel. Here, too, but near the Kot, has the pious 
policy of Eeysul constructed the great mosque. 

" The fortifications of the town were once strong 



EASTERN ARABIA. 289 

and high, but are now little better than heaps of 
ruins — of broken towers and winding stairs that lead 
to nothing. Without the walls lie the gardens and 
plantations, stretching away north and east as far 
as the eye can reach ; on the south and west they 
form a narrower ring. North and east of Hofhoof 
is one green mass of waving foliage, save where 
occasionally the overflowing water-channels present 
that phenomenon specially dear in reminiscences to 
an east-country Englishman, namely, a real genuine 
marsh, with reeds, rushes, and long-legged water- 
fowl. Heaven bless them all ! I cannot say how 
glad I was to see them after so long a separation ; 
while around the rim of the swamps and pools rise 
stately palm-trees, laden with the choicest dates of 
Arabia, or rather of the entire world. A solitary 
conical hillock, the freak of nature, rises alone on 
the northeast from the level of this well-watered 
plain ; its summit bears the vestiges of Carmathian 
fortification. These details have, I trust, given my 
readers a tolerable idea of the town of Hofhoof and 
its immediate neighborhood. Its general aspect is 
that of a white and yellow onyx, chased in an 
emerald rim ; the name of * Hofhoof,' like the Win- 
chester of our own island, implies glitter and 
beauty. 

" But perhaps my reader, after accompanying me 
thus far, may feel thirsty, for the heat, even in De- 
cember, is almost oppressive, and the sky cloudless, 
as though it were June or July. So let us turn 
aside into that grassy plantation, where half-a-dozen 
buffaloes are cooHng their ugly hides in a pool, and 



290 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

drink a little from the source that supplies it. When 

behold ! the water is warm, almost hot. Do not be 

surprised ; all the fountain sources and wells of Hasa 

are so, more or less ; in some, one can hardly bear 

to plunge one's hand ; others are less above the 

average temperature, while a decidedly sulphurous 

taste is now and then perceptible. In fact, from the 

;• extreme north of this province down to its southern- 

i most frontier, this same sign of subterranean fire is 

everyw^here to be found. The rocks, too, are here 

very frequently of tufa and basalt, another mark of 

, I * igneous agency. 

I " The products of Hasa are many and various ; 

j the monotony of Arab vegetation, its eternal palm 

I and ithel, ithel and palm, are here varied by new 

j foliage, and growths unknown to Nedjed and Sho- 

mer. True, the date-palm still predominates, nay, 
here attains its greatest perfection. But the nabak, 
with its rounded leaves and little crab-apple fruit, a 
mere bush in Central Arabia, becomes in Hasa a 
^ stately tree ; the papay, too, so well known in the 

more easterly peninsula, appears, though seldom, 
and stunted in growth, along with some other trees, 
common on the coast from Cutch to Bombay. Indigo 
is here cultivated, though not sufficiently for the 
demands of commerce ; cotton is much more widely 
grown than in Yemamah ; rice fields abound, and 
the sugar-cane is often planted, though not, I believe, 
for the extraction of the sugar; the peasants of 
Hasa sell the reed by retail bundles in the market- 
place, and the purchasers take it home to gnaw at 
leisure in their houses. Corn, maize, millet, vetches 



EASTERN ARABIA. 291 

of every kind, radishes, onions, garlic, beans, in 
short, almost all legumina and cerealia, barley ex- 
cepted, (at least I neither saw nor heard of any,) 
cover the plain, and under a better administration 
might be multiplied tenfold. 

" The climate of Hasa, as I have already implied, 
is very different from that of the uplands, and not 
equally favorable to health and physical activity. 
Hence, a doctor, like myself, if my readers will 
allow me the title, has here more work and better 
fees ; this latter circumstance is also owing to the 
greater amount of ready money in circulation, and 
the higher value set on medical science by men 
whose intellects are much more cultivated than those 
of their Nedjean neighbors. In appearance, the 
inhabitants of Hasa are generally good- sized and 
well-proportioned, but somewhat sallow in the face, 
and of a less muscular development than is usual 
inland ; their features, though regular, are less 
marked than those of the Nedjeans, and do not ex- 
hibit the same half-Jewish type ; on the contrary, 
there is something in them that reminds a beholder 
of the Eajpoot or the Guzeratee. They are passion- 
ately fond of literature and poetry. 

" I have already said that our great endeavor in 
Hasa was to observe unobserved, and thus to render 
our time as barren as might be in incidents and 
catastrophes. Not that we went into the opposite 
extreme of leading an absolutely retired and there- 
fore uneventful life. Aboo-'Eysa took care from the 
first to bring us mto contact with the best and the 
most cultivated families of the town, nor had my 



292 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

medical profession anywhere a wider range for its 
exercise, or better success than in Hofhoof. Friendly 
invitations, now to dinner, now to supper, were of 
daily occurrence ; and we sat at tables where fish, 
no longer rnere salted shrimps, announced our 
vicinity to the coast ; vermicelli, too, and other 
kinds of pastry, denoted the influence of Persain 
art on the kitchen. Smoking within doors was 
general ; but the nargheelah often replaced, and 
that advantageously, the short Arab pipe ; perfumes 
are no less here in use than in Nedjed. I need 
hardly say that domestic furniture is here much 
more varied and refined tlian what adorns the dwell- 
ings of Sedeyr and 'Aared ; and the stools, low din- 
ner-tables, cupboards, shelves, and bedsteads, are 
very like the fittings-up of a respectable Hindoo 
house. 

" We had passed about a week in the town when 
Aboo-'Eysa enter the side room where Barakat 
and I were enjoying a moment of quiet, and copy- 
ing out * Nabtee' poetry, and shut the door behind 
him. He then announced to us, with a face and 
tone of serious anxiety, that two of the principal 
Nedjean agents belonging to the Kot had just come 
into the k'hawah, under pretext of medical con- 
sultation, but in reality, said he, to identify the 
strangers. We put on our cloaks — a preliminary 
measure of decorum equivalent to face and hand- 
washing in Europe — and presented ourselves before 
our inquisitors with an air of conscious innocence 
and scientific solemnity. Conversation ensued, and 
we talked so learnedly about biHous and sanguine 



EASTERN ARABIA. 293 

complexions, cephalic veins, and Indian drugs, with 
such apposite citations from the Koran, and such 
lojal phrases for Feysul, that Aboo-'Ejsa was 
beside himself for joy ; and the spies, after receiving 
some prescriptions of the bread-pill and aromatic- 
water formula, left the house no wiser than before. 
Our friends, too, and they were now many, well 
guessing what we might really be, partly from our 
own appearance, and partly from the known char- 
acter of our host, (according to old Homer's true 
saying. Heaven always leads like to like,) did each and 
all their best to throw sand into Wahabee eyes, and 
everything went on sociably and smoothly. A 
blessmg on the medical profession ! None other 
gives such excellent opportunities for securing every- 
where confidence and friendship. 

" Before we leave Hasa I must add a few remarks 
to complete the sketch given of the province and of 
its inhabitants ; want of a suitable opportunity for 
inserting them before has thrown them together at 
this point of my narrative. 

" My fair readers will be pleased to learn that the 
veil and other restraints inflicted on the gentle sex 
by Islamitic rigorism, not to say worse, are much 
less universal, and more easily dispensed with in 
Hasa; while in addition, the ladies of the land 
enjoy a remarkable share of those natural gifts 
which no institutions, and even no cosmetics, can 
confer; namely, beauty of face and elegance of 
form. Might I venture on the delicate and some- 
what invidious task of cpnstructing a ' beauty-scale ' 
for Arabia, and for Arabia alone, the Bedouin women 



294 



TBAVELS IN ARABIA. 



would, on this kalometer, be represented by zero, or 
at most 1°; a degree higher would represent the 
female sex of Nedjed ; above them rank the women 
of Shomer, who are in their turn surmounted by 
those of Djowf. The fifth or sixth degree symbol- 
izes the fair ones of Hasa ; the seventh those of 
Katar ; and lastly, by a sudden rise of ten degrees 
at least, the seventeenth or eighteenth would denote 
the pre-eminent beauties of Oman. Arab poets oc- 
casionally languish after the charmers of Hedjaz ; I 
never saw any one to charm me, but then I only 
skirted the province. All bear witness to the ab- 
sence of female loveliness in Yemen ; and I should 
much doubt whether the mulatto races and dusky 
complexions of Hadramaut have much to vaunt of. 
But in Hasa a decided improvement on this import- 
ant point is agreeably evident to the traveller 
arriving from Nedjed, and he will be yet further 
delighted on finding his Calypsos much more con- 
versible, and having much more, too, in their con- 
versation than those he left behind him in Sedeyr 
and 'Aared. 

"During our stay at Hofhoof, Aboo-'Eysaleft un- 
tried no arts of Arab rhetoric and persuasion to 
determine me to visit Oman, assuring me again and 
again that whatever we had yet seen, even in his 
favorite Hasa, was nothing compared to what re- 
mained to see in that more remote country. My 
companion, tired of our long journey, and thinking 
the long distance already laid between him and his 
Syrian home quite sufficient in itself without further 
leagues tacked on to it, was very little disposed for 



EASTERN ARABIA. 



295 



a supplementary expedition. Englishmen, on the 
contrary, are rovers by descent and habit ; my own 
mind was now fully made up to visit Oman at all 
risks, whether Barakat came with me or not. 
Meanwhile, we formed our plan for the next imme- 
diate stage of our route. My companion and I 
were to quit Hofhoof together, leaving Aboo-'Eysa 
behind us for a week or two at Hasa, whilst we 
journeyed northwards to Kateef, and thence took 
ship for the town of Menamah in Bahreyn. In 
this latter place Aboo-'Eysa was to rejoin us. Our 
main reason for thus separating our movements in 
time and in direction, was to avoid the too glaring 
appearance of acting in concert while yet in a land 
under Wahabee government and full of Wahabee 
spies and reporters, especially after the suspicions 
thrown on us at Ri'ad. The Oman arrangements 
were to be deferred till we should all meet again." 

" Barakat and myself prepared for our departure ; 
we purchased a few objects of local curiosity, got in 
our dues of medical attendance, paid and received 
the customary P. P. C. visits, and even tendered 
our respects to the negro governor Belal, where he 
sat at his palace door in the Kot, holding a public 
audience, and looking much like any other well- 
dressed black. No passport was required for set- 
ting out on the road to Kateef, which in the eyes of 
government forms only one and the same province 
with Hasa, though .in many respects very different 
from it. The road is perfectly secure ; plundering 
Bedouins or highway robbers are here out of the 
question. However we stood in need of compan- 



29G TRAVELS IN ARABIA, 

ions, not for escort, but as guides. Aboo-'Ej'sa 
made inquiries in the town, and found three men 
who chanced to be just then setting out on their 
way for Kateef, who readily consented to join band 
with us for the road. Our Abyssinian hostess sup- 
phed us with a whole sack of provisions, and our 
Hofhoof associates found us in camels. Thus 
equipped and mounted, we took an almost touch- 
ing leave of Aboo-'Eysa's good-natured wife, kissed 
the baby, exchanged an au revoir with its father, 
and set out on the afternoon of December 19fch, 
leaving behind us many pleasant acquaintances, 
from some of whom I received messages and 
letters while at Bahreyn. So far as inhabitants 
are concerned, to no town in Arabia should I return 
with equal confidence of finding a hearty greeting 
and a welcome reception, than to Hofhoof and its 
amiable and intelligent merchants. 

" We quitted the town by the northeastern gate of 
the Rifey-'eeyah, where the friends, who, according 
to Arab custom, had accompanied us thus far in a 
sort of procession, w shed us a prosperous journey, 
took a last adieu, and returned home. After some 
hours we bivouacked on a little hillock of clean sand, 
with the dark line of the Hofhoof w^oods on our 
left, while at some distance in front a copious foun- 
tain poured out its rushing waters with a noise dis- 
tinctly audible in the stilhiess of the night, and 
irrigated a garden worthy of Damascus or Antioch. 
The night air was temperate, neither cold like that 
of Nedjed, nor stifling like that of Southern India ; 
the sky clear and starry. From our commanding 



EASTERN ARABIA. 297 

position on the hill I could distinguish Soheyl or 
Canopus, now setting ; and following him, not far 
above the horizon, the three upper stars of the 
Southern Cross, an old Indian acquaintance ; two 
months later in Oman I had the view of the entire 
constellation . 

" Next morning we traversed a large plain of light 
and sandy soil, intersected by occasional ridges of 
basalt and sandstone. Everywhere were indica- 
tions of abundant moisture at a very slight depth 
below the surface ; dwarf-palms, shrubs, nay, reeds 
and rushes, sprang up at short intervals, and now 
and then we passed a little pool in some sheltered 
hollow, fringed with overhanging bushes, while the 
ruins of two large villages, now deserted like Au- 
burn, witnessed to the decline of the land under 
Nedjean rule. Hundreds and hundreds of the 
inhabitants have recently emigrated ; a few fami- 
lies northward, the greater number to the islands 
adjacent to Bahreyn, to the Persian coast, and the 
kindred dominions of Oman. 

" We journeyed on all day, meeting no Bedouins 
and few travellers. At evening we encamped in a 
shallow valley, near a cluster of brimming wells, 
some sweet, some brackish, where the traces of 
half-obliterated watercourses and the vestiges of 
crumbling house-walls indicated the former ex- 
istence of a village, now also deserted. ' We 
passed a comfortable night under the shelter of 
palms and high brushwood, mixed with gigantic 
aloes and yuccas ; and rose next morning early to 
our way.. Our direction lay. northeast. In. the, 



298 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

afternoon we caught our first glimpse of Djebel 
Mushahhar, a pyramidical peak some seven hun- 
dred feet high and about ten miles south of Kateef. 
But the sea, though T looked towards it and for it 
with an eagerness somewhat resembling that of the 
Ten Thousand on their approach to the Euxine, 
remained shut out from view by a further continu- 
ation of the heights. Here we exchanged the 
sands of Hasa for a rocky and blackish ground ; 
the air blew cold and sharp, nor w^as I sorry when 
at evening we halted near a cluster of trees, exactly 
at the boundary line of the Kateef territory. Our 
dromedaries (beautiful creatures to look at) were 
turned loose to graze, when lo ! they took advan- 
tage of the dusk to sheer off, nor were they recap- 
tured without much difficulty ; thus giving us proof 
of what I had often heard, and have mentioned in 
another chapter of this work, that a camel when 
once his own master, never dreams of coming home, 
except under compulsion. 

" Next day we rose at dawn, and crossed the hills 
of Kateef by a long winding path, till after some 
hours of labyrinthine track we came in sight of the 
dark plantation-line that girdles Kateef itself land- 
wards. The sea lies immediately beyond ; this we 
knew, but we could not obtain a glimpse of its 
waters through the verdant curtain stretched be- 
tween. 

"About midday we descended the last slope, a 
steep sandstone cliff, which looks as though it had 
been the sea-limit of a former period. We now 
stood on the coast itself. Its level is as nearly as 






EASTERN ARABIA. 299 

possible that of the Gulf beyond ; a few feet of a 
higher tide than usual would cover it up to the 
cliffs. Hence it is a decidedly unhealthy land, 
though fertile and even populous ; but the inhabi- 
tants are mostly weakin frame and sallow in com 
plexion. The atmosphere was thick and oppres- 
sive, the heat intense, and the vegetation hung rich 
and heavy around ; my companions talked about 
suffocation, and I remembered once more the In- 
dian coast. Another hour of afternoon march 
brought us to Kateef itself, at its western portal ; 
a high stone arch of elegant form, and flanked by 
walls and towers, but all dismantled and ruinous. 
Close by the two burial grounds, one for the people 
of the land, the other for the Ned jean rulers and 
colony — divided even after death by mutual hatred 
and anathema. Folly, if you will, but folly not pe- 
culiar to the East. 

" The town itself is crowded, damp, and dirty, and 
has altogether a gloomy, what for want of a better 
epithet I would call a mouldy, look ; much busi- 
ness was going on in the market and streets, but 
the ill-favored and very un-Arab look of the shop- 
keepers and workmen confirms what history tells of 
the Persian colonization of this city. Indeed, the 
inhabitants of the entire district, but more especially 
of the capital, are a mongrel race, in which Persian 
blood predominates, mixed with that of Bassora, 
Bagdad, and the 'Irak. 

" We urged our starting dromedaries across the 
open square in front of the market-place, traversed 
the town in its width, whigh is scarce a quarter of 



300 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. 

its length, (like other coast towns,) till we emerged 
from the opposite gate, and then looked out with 
greedy eyes for the sea, now scarce ten minutes 
distant. In vain as yet, so low lies the land, and so 
thick cluster the trees. But after a turn or two we 
came alongside of the outer walls, belonging to the 
huge fortress of Karmoot, and immediately after- 
wards the valley opening out showed us almost at 
our feet the dead shallow flats of the bay. How 
different from the bright waters of the Mediterra- 
nean, all glitter and life, where we had bidden them 
farewell eight months before at Gaza ! Like a 
leaden sheet, half ooze, half sedge, the muddy sea 
lay in view, waveless, motionless ; to our left the 
massive walls of the castle went down almost to the 
water's edge, and then turned to leave a narrow 
esplanade between its circuit and the Gulf. On this 
ledge were ranged a few rusty guns of large calibre, 
to show how the place was once guarded ; and just 
in front of the main gate a crumbling outwork, 
which a single cannon-shot would level with the 
ground, displayed six pieces of honey-combed ar- 
tillery, then^ mouths pointed seawards. Long stone 
benches without invited us to leave our camels 
crouching on the esplanade, while we seated our- 
selves and rested a little before requesting the gov- 
ernor to grant us a day's hospitality, and permission 
to embark for Bahreyn. 

" Barakat and I sat still to gaze, speculating on 
the difference between the two sides of Arabia. 
But our companions, like true Arabs, thought it 
high time for 'refreshment,' and accordingly began 



EASTERN ABABIA. 301 

their inquiries at the castle gate where the governor 
might be, and whether he was to be spoken to. 
When, behold ! the majesty of Feysul's vicegerent 
issuing in person from his palace to visit the new 
man-of-war. My abolitionist friends will be gratified 
to learn that this exalted dignitary is, no less than 
he of Hofhoof, a negro, brought up from a curly- 
headed imp to a woolly-headed black in Feysul's 
own palace, and now governor of the most impor- 
tant harbor owned by Nedjed on the Persian Gulf, 
and of the town once capital of that fierce dynasty 
which levelled the Kaabah with the dust, and filled 
Kateef with the plunder of Yemen and Syria. Far- 
hat, to give him his proper name, common among 
those of his complexion, was a fine tall negro of 
about fi'fty years old, good-natured, chatty, hospi- 
table, and furnished with perhaps a trifle more than 
the average amount of negro intellect. 

" Aboo-'Eysa, who had friends and acquaintances 
everywhere, and whose kindly manner made him 
always a special favorite with negroes high or low, 
had furnished us with an introductory letter to Far- 
hat, intended to make matters smooth for our future 
route. But as matters went there was little need of 
caution. The fortunate coincidence of a strong 
north wind, just then blowing down the Gulf, gave a 
satisfactory reason for not embarking on board of a 
Bassora cruiser, while it rendered a voyage to Bah- 
reyn, our real object, equally specious and easy. 
Besides, Farhat himself, who was a good, easy- 
going sort of man, had hardly opened Aboo-'Eysa's 
note, than without more ado he bade us a hearty 



302 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

welcome, ordered our luggage to be brought within 
the castle precincts, and requested us to step in our- 
selves and take a cup of coffee, awaiting his return 
for further conversation, after his daily visit of 
inspection to Feysul's abridged fleet. 

" The next day passed, partly in Farhat's k'hawah, 
partly in strolling about the castle, town, gardens, 
and. beach, making, meanwhile, random inquiries 
after boats and boatmen. Kateef offers what might 
almost be called a violent contrast to the general 
features of Arabia. The rank luxuriance of its 
garden vegetation surpasses by much the best 
watered spots about Hofhoof, and the heavy foliage 
drooping in the heavy air aroused in me remem- 
brances of a rainy season in the Concan, and sen- 
sations which had been sleeping for many a year. 
The town itself, damp and dingy as it is, offers little 
to invite visitors. 

" It was noon when we fell in with a ship captain, 
ready to sail that very night, wind and tide permit- 
ting. Farhat's men had spoken with him, and he 
readily offered to take us on board. We then paid 
a visit to the custom-house officer to settle the em- 
barkation dues for men and goods. This foreman 
of the Ma'asher, whether in accordance with orders 
from Farhat, or of his own free will and inclination, 
I know not, proved wonderfully gracious, and 
declared that to take a farthing of duty from such 
useful servants of the public as doctors, would be 
* sheyn w' khata',' * shame and sin.' Alas, that 
European custom-house officials should be far re- 
moved from such generous and patriotic sentiments ! 



I 
EASTERN ARABIA. 303 ' 



Lastly, of his own accord lie furnished us with men 
to carry our baggage through knee-deep water and 
thigh-deep mud to the little cutter, where she lay 
some fifty yards from shore. Evening now came 
on, and Farhat sent for us to congratulate us, but 
with a polite regret on having found so speedy con- 
veyance for our voyage. Meanwhile he let us 
understand how he was himself invited for the 
evening to supper with a rich merchant of the town, 
and that we were expected to join the party ; nor 
need that make us anxious about our passage, 
since our ship captain was also invited, nor could 
the vessel possibly sail before the full tide at mid- 
night. 

" From our town supper we returned by torchlight 
to the castle ; our baggage, no great burden, had 
been already taken down to the sea gate, where 
stood two of the captain's men waiting for us. In 
their company we descended to the beach, and then 
with garments tucked up to the waist waded to the 
vessel, not without difficulty, for the tide was rapidly 
coming in, and we had almost to swim for it. At 
last we reached the ship, and scrambled up her side ; 
most heartily glad was I to find myself at sea once 
more on the other side of Arabia." 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN.— CONCLUSION. 

AFTER a slow voyage of three days, Palgrave 
reached Bahreyn, the headquarters of the 
pearl fisheries, and established himself in the little 
town of Moharrek, to wait for the arrival of Aboo- 
'Eysa, before undertaking his projected exploration 
of Oman. He and his companion enjoyed a grate- 
ful feeling of rest and security in this seaport among 
the sailors, to whom all varieties of foreigners were 
well known, and who, having no prejudices, felt no 
suspicion. 

On the 9th of January, 1863, Aboo-'Eysa arrived, 
and after much earnest consultation the following 
plan was adopted : Aboo-'Eysa was to send twenty 
loads of the best Hasa dates, and a handsome 
mantle, as presents to the Sultan of Oman, with 
three additional mantles for the three chiefs whose 
territories intervened between Bahreyn and Muscat. 
Palgrave was to accompany these gifts, under his 
character of a skilled physician, in quest of certain 
rare and mysterious herbs of Oman. Meanwhile, 



SHIP WRECK ON TEE COAST OF OMAN. 305 

Aboo-'Eysa and Barakat would take passage for 
Aboo-Slialir (Busheer), in Persia, where the former 
would be employed for three months in making up 
his next caravan of Mecca pilgrims. Here Pal- 
grave was to rejoin them, after his journey. 

In place of Barakat, his companion was a curious 
individual named Yoqsef, whom Aboo-'Eysa had 
rescued from misery, and maintained in a decent 
condition. He was a native of Ha^a, half a jester 
and half a knave ; witty, reckless, hair-brained to 
the last degree, full of jocose or pathetic stories, of 
poetry, traditions, and fun of every description. 
When everything had been arranged, the four 
parted company, Palgrave and his new companion 
saiHng for the port of Bedaa', on the Arabian coast, 
where resided the first of the three chiefs whose 
protection it was necessary to secure. They reached 
there after a cruise of five or six days, finding the 
place very barren and desolate, with scarcely a tree 
or a garden ; but, as the chief said to Palgrave, 
" we are aU, from the highest to the lowest, the 
slaves of one master — Pearl." The bay contains 
the best pearl-fishery on the coast, and the town 
depends for its existence on the trade in these 
gems. 

The chief was intelligent and friendly, and ap- 
pears to have interposed no obstacle to the pro- 
posed journey into the interior, but Palgrave de- 
cided to go on by sea to the town of Sharjah, on 
the northern side of the peninsula of Oman. Em- 
barking again on the 6th of February, the vessel 
was driven by violent winds across to the Persian 



806 TRAVMS IN AEABIA. 

shore, and ten days elapsed before it was possible 
to reach Sharjah. Here, again, although their re- 
ception was hospitable, the travellers gave up their 
land journey, and re-embarked in another vessel to 
pass around the peninsula, through the Straits of 
Ormuz, and land on the southern shore, in the ter- 
ritory of Muscat. 

In three days they reached the island of Ormuz, 
of which Palgrave says: "I was not at all sorry to 
have an opportunity of visiting an island once so 
renowned for its commerce, and of which its Portu- 
guese occupants used to say, ' that, were the world 
a golden ring, Ormuz would be the diamond signet.' 
The general appearance of Ormuz indicates an 
extinguished volcano, and such I believe it really is ; 
the circumference consists of a wide oval wall, 
formed by steep crags, fire-worn and ragged ; these 
enclose a central basin, where grow shrubs and 
grass ; the basaltic slopes of the outer barrier run 
in many places clean down into the sea, amid splin- 
ter-like pinnacles and fantastic crags of many colors, 
like those which lava often assumes on cooling. 
Between the west and north a long triangular pro- 
montory, low and level, advances to a considerable 
distance, and narrows into a neck of land, which is 
terminated by a few rocks and a strong fortress, the 
work of Portuguese builders, but w^orthy of taking 
rank among Eoman ruins — so solid are the walls, so 
compact the masonry and well-selected brickwork, 
against which three long centuries of sea-storm 
have broken themselves in vain. The greater part 
of the promontory itself is covered with ruins; 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 307 

here stood the once thriving town, now a confused 
extent of desolate heaps, amid which the vestiges 
of several fine tlwellings, of baths, and of a large 
church, may yet be clearly made out. Close by the 
fort cluster a hundred or more wretched earth- 
hovels, the abode of fishermen or shepherds, whose 
flocks pasture within the crater ; one single shed, 
where dried dates, raisins, and tobacco are exposed 
for sale, is all that now remains of the trade of 
Ormuz." 

After being detained three days at .Ormuz by a 
storm, the vessel passed through the Strait, skirted 
the southern coast of the peninsula, and reached 
the harbor of Sohar on the 3rd of March. Pal- 
grave determined to set off with Yoosef the same 
evening on the land-journey of eight or nine days to 
Muscat ; but he had already lost so much time by 
delays since leaving Bahreyn that he yielded to the 
persuasions of the captain of another vessel, who 
promised to take him to Muscat by sea in two days. 
He sailed on the 6th, weighed down with a vague 
presentiment of coming evil, which was soon to be 
justified. His wanderings in Arabia, and also in 
this world, very nearly came to an end. The vessel 
slowly glided on for two days, and Muscat was 
almost in sight when a dead, ominous calm befell 
them near the Sowadah Islands — some low reefs of 
barren rocks, about three leagues from shore. 
What followed must be related in Palgrave's own 
words : 

" Towards evening a light southwesterly breeze 
sprung up, and we spread our sails, hoping by their 



308 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. 

aid, though the wind Avas not precisely from the 
right quarter, to find our Avay, after some tacking 
and wearing, into Muscat harbor. ^ But the breeze 
rapidly grew till it became a strong gale, and in half 
an hour's time it was a downright storm, baffling all 
nautical manoeuvres. One of our sails was blown 
to rags, the others were with difficulty got in, and 
when night closed we were driving under bare poles 
before a fierce southwester over a raging sea, while 
the sky, though unclouded, was veiled from view by 
a general haze, such as often accompanies a high 
storm. The passengers were frightened, but the 
sailors and I rather enjoyed the adventure, know- 
ing that we were by this time far off the coast, 
clear of all rocks, and, in short, anticipating noth- 
ing worse than a day or two extra at sea before get- 
ting round to Muscat. The moon rose — she was in 
her third quarter — and showed us a weltering waste 
of waters, where we were scudding entirely alone ; 
some other vessels which had been in sight at sun- 
set had now totally disappeared. The passengers, 
and Yoosef among the number, dismayed by the 
mad roll of the ship, no longer steadied by a stitch 
of canvas, by the dashing of the waves, and all the 
confusion of a storm, sat huddled below in the aft/ 
cabin, while the helmsman, the captain, and myself, 
held on to the ropes of the quarter, and so kept our 
places as best we might ; the Sonnees with the Ned- 
jeans recited verses out of the Koran ; the Omanee 
sailors laughed, or tried to laugh, for some of them, 
too, began to think the matter serious ; no one, 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. S09 

however, anticipated tlie sudden catastrophe near 
at hand. 

" It may have been, to judge by the height of the 
moon above the horizon, about ten of the night, or 
a Httle earher, when we remarked that the ship, 
instead of bounding and tossing over the waves as 
before, began to drive low in the water, with a heavy 
lurch of a peculiar character. One of the sailors 
approached the captain and whispered in his ear ; 
in reply the captain directed them to sound the 
hold. Two men went to work, and found the lower 
part of the vessel full of water. Hastily they re- 
moved some side boardings, and saw a large stream 
pouring into the hole from sternwards ; a plank had 
started. 

" The captain rose in despair full length, and 
called out, * Irmoo !' ' throw overboard !' hoping that 
lightening the ship of her cargo might yet save her. 
In a moment the hatchways amidships were removed, 
and all hands were busy to execute the last and 
desperate duty. But no more than three bales had 
been cast into the deep, when a ripple of blue, 
phosphoric light crossed the main-deck ; the sea 
was already above board. No chance remained. 
' Ikhamoo !' ' plunge for it !' shouted the captain., and 
set the example by leaping himself amid the waves. 
All this passed in less than a minute ; there was 
no time for deliberation, or attempt to save any- 
thing. 

" How to get clear of the whirl which must fol- 
low the ship's going down was my first thought. I 
clambered at one© on the quarter-deck, which was 



♦ 



310 TEA VELS IN ARABIA, 

yet some feet raised above the triumph of the lash- 
ing waves, invoked Him who can save by sea as well 
as by land, and dived head foremost as far as I 
could. After a few vigorous strokes out, I turned 
my face back towards the ship, whence a wail of 
despair had been the last sound I had heard. Then 
I saw amid the raging waters the top of the mizen- 
mast just before it disappeared below with a spiral 
movement, while I was yet looking at it. Six men 
— five passengers and one sailor — had gone down 
with the vessel. A minute later, and boards, mats, 
and spars were floating -here and there amid the 
breakers, while the heads of the surviving swimmers 
now showed themselves, now disappeared, in the 
moongleam and shadow. 

" So rapidly had all this taken place that I had 
not a moment for so much as to throw off a single 
article of dress; though the buffeting of the waves 
soon eased me of turban and girdle. Nor had I 
even leisure for a thought of deliberate fear ; though 
I confess that an indescribable thrill of horror, 
which had come over me when the blue glimmer of 
the water first rippled over the deck, though scarce 
noticed at the time, haunted me for months alter. 
But at the actual moment, the struggle for life left 
no freedom for backward-looking considerations, 
and I was already making for a piece of timber that 
floated not far off, when, on looking around more 
carefully, I descried at some distance the ship's 
boat ; she had been dragged after us thus far at a 
long tow, Arab fashion, though who had cut her 
rope before the ship foundered was what no one of 



SHIP WRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 311 

US could ever discover. She had now drifted some 
sixty yards off, and was dancing hke an empty nut- 
shell on the ocean. 

" Being, like the Spanish sailors in * Don Juan/ 
well aware * That a tight boat will live in a rough 
sea. Unless with breakers close beneath her lee,' I 
gave up the plank, and struck out for the new hope 
of safety. By the time I had reached her, three of 
the crew had already established themselves there 
before me ; they lent me a hand to clamber in ; 
others now came up, and before long nine men, be- 
sides the lad, nephew of the captain, were in her, 
closely packed. So soon as I found myself in this 
ark of respite, though not of safety, I bethought 
me of Yoosef, whom I had not seen since the mo- 
ment of our wreck. He was not along with us ; but 
while, scarce hoping, I shouted out his name over 
the waters to give him a chance of a signal, * Here 
I am, master, God be praised !' answered the drip- 
ping head ; and we hauled him in to take his for- 
tune with the rest. 

" We were now twelve — namely, the captain, his 
nephew, the pilot, and four of the crew; the re- 
maining five consisted of one of the passengers 
from 'Okdah — for the other had gone down in the 
ship — the runaway scapegrace of Manfoohah, and a 
native of Soroeyk, besides Yoosef and myself. 
Three others at this moment came swimming up, 
and wished to enter, but the boat, calculated to 
contain eight or nine at most, was already overload- 
ed, especially for so mad a sea, and to admit a new 
burden was out of the question. However, the 



312 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

poor fellows got hold of a spare yardarm, which 
had floated up from the sunken vessel. This we 
made fast to the boat's stern by a rope, and thus 
took the three in tow clinging to it, two passengers 
and a sailor. 

"Four oars were stowed in the boat, and her 
rudder, unshipped, lay in the bottom, along with a 
small iron anchor and an extra plank or two. The 
anchor was without delay heaved overboard by the 
pilot and myself as a superfluous weight, and so 
w^ere the planks. Meanwhile, some of the sailors 
prepared to do as much for the passengers, observ- 
ing, not without a certain show of reason on their 
side, that with so many on board, there could be 
remarkably little hope of ever reaching shore ; that 
the boat was after all the sailors' right, and the rest 
might manage on the beam astern as best they 
could. Fortunately during the voyage I had be- 
come a particular friend of the captain and pilot, 
besides earning the special goodwill of a merry, 
sturdy young seaman now in the boat. So I ad- 
dressed myself to them first, and then to all the 
crew, and declared the expulsory proposition to be 
utterly unjust, wicked, and not tit for discussion, and 
then, to cut short reply, I proceeded, aided by the 
pilot, who seconded me manfully throughout, to dis- 
tribute the oars among the sailors ; as indeed it was 
high time to do, in order to steady the boat, over 
which every wave now broke, threatening to send 
us to the bottom after her old companion. The 
captain took post at the rudder, while the pilot and 
myself s^et to baling out the water, partly with a 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 313 

leatlicrn bucket which one of the crew had kept the 
presence of mind to bring with him from the ship, 
(holding the handle between his teeth no less clev- 
erly than Csesar did his sword off the Alexandrian 
Pharos,) and partly with a large scoop belonging to 
the boat ; both implements Avere in constant requi- 
sition, since every bucketful or scoopful of water 
thrown out, was by the next wave repaid with usu- 
ry, so fiercely did the storm rage around. 

"The Sonnee of Djebel-'Okdah sat up in the 
boat, repeating verses of the Koran ; the captain's 
nephew showed extraordinary spirit for a boy of his 
age ; the sailors managed their oars with much skill 
and courage, keeping us carefully athwart the roll of 
the sea; the rest, and I am sorry to say Yoosef 
for one, were so terribly frightened that they had 
completely lost their wits, and lay like dead men 
amid the water in the boat's bottom, neither raising 
a head nor saying a word. 

*' Indeed, our position, though not wholly without 
a gleam of hope, seemed very nearly desperate. 
We were in an open, overloaded boat, her move- 
ments yet further embarrassed by the beam in tow, 
far out at sea — so far as to be quite beyond view of 
coast, though the high shore hereabouts can be seen 
at a long distance, even by moonlight — with a howl- 
ing wind, every moment on the increase, and tear- 
ing waves like huge monsters coming on as though 
with purpose to swallow us up. What reasonable 
chance had we of ever reaching land? All de- 
pended on the steerage and on the balance and 
su pport afforded by the oars ; and even more still 



314 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

on the providence of Him who made the deep ; nor 
indeed could I get myself to think that He had 
brought me thus far to let me drown, just at the 
end of my journey, and in so very unsatisfactory a 
way, too ; for had we then gone down, what news 
of the events off Sowadah would ever have reached 
home? Or when? So that, altogether, I felt con- 
fident of getting somehow or another on shore, 
though by what means I did not exactly know. 
The Mahometans on board, (they were two,) — so 
at least, poor fellows, their demeanor seemed to 
show — prayed as best they might; the Biadeeyah 
mostly kept silence, or exchanged a few words rela- 
tive to the management of the boat, while the 
young sailor already mentioned cracked jokes as 
coolly as though he had been in his cottage on 
shore, making the rest laugh in spite of themselves, 
and thus keeping up their spirits — the best thing 
just then to be done, for to lose heart would have 
been to lose all. 

"From an idea that so learned a man (in Arab es- 
timation) as I, ought, among other acquirements, 
to be better acquainted with the chart than any one 
else, and perhaps, too, because I seemed to be less 
thrown out of my reckonings than most of our 
party, all referred to me for the direction of our ha- 
zardous course. By the stars, a few of which were 
dimly visible between mist and moonlight, I guessed 
the whereabouts of shore. It lay almost due 
south ; but the hurricane had now veered and blew 
from between west and north ; hence we were 
obliged to follow a southeasterly line, in order to 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 315 

avoid the sudden destruction of giving a broadside 
to the waves. Once sure of this point, I made the 
men keep our boat's head steady on the tack just 
explained, and for a long hour we pulled on, baling 
out the water every moment, and encouraging each 
other to keep up good heart ; that land could not 
be far off. At last I saw, by the milky moonlight, a 
rock which I remembered sighting on the previous 
afternoon ; it was the Eock of Djeyn, an outlying 
point of the Sowadah group, and now at some dis- 
tance on our leeboard. * Courage !' I cried out, 
* there is Djeyn.' * Say it again, say it again ; God 
bless you !' they all exclaimed, as though the repeti- 
tion of the good news would make it of yet better 
augury ; but I perceived that none of them had 
his senses enough about him to see the black peak, 
which now loomed distant over the sea. * Is it 
near?' asked he of Djebel-'Okdah. * Close by,' I 
answered, with a slight inaccuracy, which the duty 
of cheering the crew might, I hope, excuse. * Pull 
away, w^e shall soon pass it.' But in my own indi- 
vidual thought I much doubted the while whether 
we ever should, so rapidly did the boat fill from the 
spray around, while a moment's mis -steerage would 
have sent us all to the bottom. 

" Another hour of struggle ; it was past midnight 
or thereabouts, and the storm, instead of abating, 
blew stronger and stronger. A passenger, one of 
the three on the beam astern, felt too numb and 
wearied out to retain his hold by the spar any 
longer ; he left it, and swimming with a desperate 
effort up to the boat, begged in God's mme to be 



316 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

taken in. Some were for granting his request, 
others for denying ; at last two sailors, moved with 
pity, laid hold of hisr arms where ho clung to the 
boat's side, and helped him in. We were now thir- 
teen together, and the boat rode lower down in the 
water and with more danger than ever ; it was liter- 
ally a hand's breadth between life and death. 
Soon after another, Ibraheem by name, and also a 
passenger, made a similar attempt to gain admit- 
tance. To comply would have been sheer madness, 
but the poor wretch clung to the gunwale and 
struggled to clamber over, till the nearest of the 
creAv, after vainly entreating him to quit hold and 
return to the beam, saying : * It is your only 
chance of life, you must keep to it,' loosened his 
grasp by main force, and flung him back into the 
sea, where he disappeared forever. *Has Ibra- 
heem reached you ?' called out the captain . to the 
sailor now alone astride of the spar. * Ibraheem is 
drowned,' came the answer across the waves. ' Is 
drowned/ aU repeated in an undertone, adding, 
* and we too, shall soon be drowned also.' For in 
fact, such seemed the only probable end of all our 
endeavors. For the storm redoubled in violence ; 
the baling could no longer keep up with the rate at 
which the waves entered ; the boat became water- 
logged ; the water poured in, hissing on every side ; 
she was sinking, and we were yet far out in the 
open sea. 

" ' Ikhamoo,' plunge for it, a second time shouted 
the captain. * Plunge who may, I will stay by the 
boat so long as she stays by nie/ thought I, and 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAy. 317 

kept my place. Yoosef, fortunately for him, was 
lying like a corpse, past fear or motion ; b at four of 
our party, one a sailor, the other three passengers, 
thinking that all hope of the boat was now over, 
and that nothing remained them but tlie spar, or 
Heaven knows what, jumped into the sea. Their 
loss saved the remainder; the boat lightened and 
righted for a moment ; the pilot and I baled away 
desperately ; she rose clear once more oi the water ; 
those in her were now nine in all — eighfc men and a 
boy, the captain's nephew. 

"Meanwhile the sea was running mountains, and 
during the paroxysm of struggle, while the boat 
pitched heavily, the cord attached from her stern to 
the beam, snapped asunder. One man was on the 
spar ; yet a minute or so the moonlight showed us 
the head of the five swimmers as they strove to re- 
gain the boat. Had they done it we were all lost ; 
then a huge wave separated them from us. * May 
God have mercy on the poor drowning men!' ex- 
claimed the captain. Their bodies were washed 
ashore off Seeb three or four days later. We now 
remained sole survivors, if indeed we were to prove 
so. 

" Our men rowed hard, and the night wore on ; at 
last the coast came in full view. Before us was a 
high black rock, jutting out into the foaming sea, 
whence it rose sheer, like the wall of a fortress ; at 
some distance on the left a peculiar glimmer and a 
long, white line of breakers assured me of the exis- 
tence of an even and sandy beach. The three sail- 
ors now at the oars, and the man of 'Okdah, who 



318 TBA VEL8 IN ARABIA, 

had taken the place of the fourth, grown reckless 
by long toil under the momentary expectation of 
death, and longing to see an end anyhow to this 
protracted misery, were for pushing the boat on the 
rocks, because the nearest land, and thus having it 
all over as soon as possible. This would have been 
certain destruction. The captain and pilot, well- 
nigh stupefied by what they had undergone, offered 
no opposition. I saw that a vigorous effort must 
be made, so I laid hold of them both, shook them 
to arouse their attention, and bade them take heed 
to what the rowers were about, adding that it w^as 
sheer suicide, and that our only hope of life was to 
bear up for the sandy creek, which I pointed out 
to them at a short distance. 

" Thus awakened from their lethargy, they start- 
ed up and joined me in expostulating with the sail- 
ors. But the men doggedly answered that they 
could hold out no more ; that whatever land was 
nearest they would make for it, come what might, 
and with this they pulled on straight towards the 
chff. 

" The captain hastily thrust the rudder into the 
pilot's hand, and springing on one of the sailors, 
pushed him from the bench and seized his oar, 
while I did the same to another on the opposite 
side, and we now got the boat's head round towards 
the bay. The refractory sailors, ashamed of their 
own faintheartedness, begged pardon, and prom- 
ised to act henceforth according to our orders. We 
gave them back their oars, very glad to see a strife 
so dangerous, especially at such a moment, soon at 



SUIPWllECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 319 

an end, and the men pulled for the left, though full 
half an hour's rowing jet remained between us and 
the breakers, and the course which we had to hold 
was more hazardous than before, because it laid the 
boat almost parallel with the sweep of the water. 
But half an hour, yet I thought we should never 
come opposite the desired spot. 

" At last we neared it, and then a new danger ap- 
peared. The first row of breakers, rolhng like a 
cataract, was still far off shore, at least a hundred 
yards, and between it and the beach appeared a 
white yeast of raging waters, evidently ten or 
twelve feet deep., through which, w^eary as we all 
were, and benumbed with the night chill and the 
unceasing splash of the spray over us, I felt it to 
be very doubtful whether we should have strength 
to struggle. But there was no avoiding it, and 
when we drew near the long white line, which glit- 
tered like a witchfire in the night, I called out to 
Yoosef and the lad, both of whom lay plunged in 
deathlike stupor, to rise and get ready for the hard 
swim now inevitable. They stood up, the sailors 
laid aside their oars, and a moment after, the curl- 
ing wave capsized the boat, and sent her down as 
though she had been struck by a cannon-shot, 
while we remained to fight for our lives in the sea. 

" Confident in my own swimming powers, but 
doubtful how far those of Toosef might reach, I at 
once turned to look for him, and seeing him close 
by me in the water, I caught hold of him, telling 
him to hold fast and I would help him to land. 
But with much presence of mind he thrust back my 



320 TRAVELS IN ARABIA. 

grasp, exclaiming : ' Save yourself, I am a good 
swimmer, never fear for me !' The captain and the 
young sailor laid hold of the boy, the captain's ne- 
phew, one on either side, and struck out with him 
for the shore. It was a desperate effort ; every 
wave overwhelmed us in its burst and carried us 
back in its eddy, while I drank much more salt 
water than was at all desirable. At last, after some 
minutes long as hours, I touched land, and scram- 
bled up the sandy beach as though the avenger of 
blood had been behind me. One by one the rest 
came ashore — some stark naked, having cast off or 
lost their remaining clothes in the whirling eddies ; 
others yet retaining some part of their dress. Every- 
one looked around to see whether his companions 
arrived, and when all nine stood together on the 
beach, all cast themselves prostrate on the sands to 
thank Heaven for a new 1-ease of life granted after 
much danger and so many comrades lost. 

" Then rising, they ran .to embrace each other, 
laaghed, cried, sobbed, danced. I never saw men 
so completely unnerved as they on this first mo- 
ment of sudden safety. One grasped the ground 
with his hands, crying out, ' Is this really land we 
are on ?' Another said, ' And where are our com- 
panions ?' A third, * God have mercy on the dead ; 
let us now thank Him for our own lives !' A fourth 
stood bewildered ; all their long and hard-stretched 
self-possession gave way. Yoosef had lost his last 
rag of dress ; I had, fortunately, yet on two long 
shirts, (one is still by me,) reaching down to the 
feet, Arab fashion. I now gave my companion one, 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 321 

keeping the other for m jself ; my red skull-cap had 
also held firm on my head, so that I was as well off 
or better than any. ' We may count this day for 
the day of our birth ; it is a new life after death,' 
said the young Omanee sailor. * There have been 
others praying for us at home, and for their sake 
God has saved us,' added the pilot, thinking of his 
family and children. ' True ; and more so, perhaps, 
than you know of,' replied I, remembering some yet 
further distant. 

" While we were thus conversing, and beginning 
to look around and wonder on what part of the 
coast we had landed, the distant sound of a gun 
was heard on the right. ' That must be the morn- 
ing gun of Seeb,' said the captain. Seeb, being a 
fortified town, and often a royal residence, has the 
privilege of a garison and artillery ; now, +rom the 
whereabouts of our wreck, opposite Sowadah, we 
could not be very far thence. We were yet discuss- 
ing this point, when another gun made itself heard 
from inland. * That must be from the palace at 
Bathat-Farzah ' (the valley of Farzah), said another. 
*Thoweynee is certainly there, for the palace guns 
never fire except when the Sultan is in residence 
with his court.' 

" It was now the first glimmer of doubtful dawn, 
and the wind, sweeping furiously along the beach, 
rendered some shelter necessary ; for we were drip- 
ping and chilled to the bone. So we crept to lee- 
ward of a cluster of bushes, and there each dug out 
for himself a long trench in the sand ; and after 
having thus put ourselves in some degree under 



322 TEA VELS IN ARABIA. 

cover, we waited for the morning, which seemed as 
though it would never come. At last the moonlight 
faded away, and the sun rose, though his rays did 
not reach us quite so soon as we should have 
desired, for the creek where we had landed was 
bordered on either side by high hills, shutting out 
the horizon. These hills ended in precipices towards 
the sea ; on the left was the very rock on which the 
despairing impatience of the crew had almost driven 
us the night before ; it looked horrible. The wind 
yet blew high, and we were shivering with cold in 
our scanty clothing. Those who, like myself, had 
come on shore with more than what was absolutely 
necessary for decency, had shared it with those who 
had nothing. 

" When the sunbeams at last struck over the hill- 
side on the right, we hastened to warm ourselves 
and to dry our aj^parel — a task speedily performed 
with so slender a wardrobe. Next we reconnoitred 
the position, with which some of the crew found 
themselves to be not wholly unacquainted. It was 
a little to the east of Seeb ; but between us and that 
town was a high and broad range of rocks, on which 
our naked feet had no great disposition to venture ; 
on the west we were hemmed in by a corresponding 
barrier. But landwards the valley ran up sandy be- 
tween the hills, and in that direction appeared an 
easier path, leading ultimately, so the sailors 
averred, to the Sultan's country palace — the same 
whence we had heard the night gun, nor could it be 
very far off. Once at the palace, all reckoned on 
the well-known liberality of. Thoweynee for obtain- 



SHIP WRECK ON THE COAST OF OMAN. 323 

ing assistance. Thither we resolved to go ; jet be- 
fore setting out we turned back to look once more 
on the sea, still raging in mad fury. Not a trace of 
our saviour boat appeared, not a sail in sight, 
though the day before (a day that now seemed a 
year ago), there had been many. Ten large vessels, 
part belonging to the Persian coast, part to the 
Omanee, had gone down besides our own, close to 
the Sowadah rocks, that very night ; three, as I 
afterwards learned, perished with every soul on 
board ; from one alone the entire crew escaped ; the 
rest lost, some more, some less ; we had, at any 
rate, companions in mist-ortune. Gazing on the 
ocean, every one made aloud the ordinary resolution 
of shipwrecked sailors never to attempt the faith- 
less element again ; a resolution kept, I doubt not, 
as steadily as most such — that is, for a fortnight or 
three weeks. 

"We then proceeded to toil southwards across 
sands and slopes in quest of the king's residence. . 
' A sorry plight,' said I to Yoosef, ' for us to present 
ourselves in before his majesty. Were the gifts 
along with us, our visit might be more to the pur- 
pose.' Yoosef sighed ; that part of our misadventure 
fell indeed mainly on him. For myself, I had of 
course lost every article retained since our parting 
with Aboo-'Eysa. What annoyed me more seriously 
was the loss of all my notes, taken from January 
23d, up to the present date, namely, March 10th, 
and herein must lie my apology for a certain- amount 
of omission and incompleteness during the part of 
my story included between those periods, pjsrhaps 



324 TRA VELS IN ARABIA, 

even some iiiToluntarj inaccuracies. To the disap- 
pearance of my cash in hand I was less sensible, 
though in fact it was scarcely a joke to find oneself 
penniless, with a penniless and nearly naked com- 
panion, in a strange land, and far from friends or 
resources. But all this was a trifle compared to the 
mishap of the captain — deprived of ship, cargo, 
and everything except the shirt on his back. The 
rest of the crew were, in proportion, no better off. 
However, several had lost what was far more essen- 
tial — their lives ; and in comparison with them we 
might well deem ourselves fortunate." 

Walking until nearly noon, they reached the 
palace of the Sultan, a large and handsome build- 
ing, in a fertile valley. The ruler, who was seated 
in the portico, reviewing some troops, listened to 
the captain's story with an air of compassion, and 
then ordered that all should be fed and clothed. In 
the evening one of the Sultan's ministers sent for 
Palgrave, who saw that his assumed character was 
suspected. As there were several natives of Nedjed 
at the court, the discovery of his nationaUty might 
have been carried back to their country, to the pre- 
judice, and possibly danger, of his friend Aboo- 
'Eysa. For this reason, only — for there could have 
been now no further risk to himself, in discovery — 
he resolved to leave the palace, and make his way 
directly to Muscat. Accompanied by Yoosef, he 
arrived there after a barefoot march of two days, 
and felt that his secret was at last safe. 

He was obliged, however, to give up all idea of 
exploring the interior of Oman. He already felt 



SHIPWRECK ON THE COAST 01^ OMAN, 325 

the coming symptoms of a typhus fever, the result 
of so many hardships and exposures; and on the 
23rd of March set sail, with Yoosef, for Busheer. 
The fever developed itself on the voyage, and when 
the vessel arrived, it was necessary to carry him to 
the house of Aboo-'Eysa. Here he lay in a state 
of semi-delirium until the arrival of the English 
steamer, to the surgeon of which and the kindness 
of the officers, he was probably indebted for his 
recovery. 

After regaining his strength at Bagdad, where he 
found his faithful Barakat, Palgrave returned to 
Syria by way of Mosul and Aleppo, having com- 
pleted the most important and interesting journey 
ever yet made by any traveller in Arabia. 



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